Lost And Found
by The Midnight Man
Summary: An encounter with someone the Rangers would never have expected to meet takes them onto a case right through the history of the Hackwrench family. The author's 6th story, written from May 25 to October 3, 2006, and premiered at the Acorn Café. Please R&R.
1. Preface

**Preface**

The Rescue Rangers canon inspires a lot of questions to which it doesn't give any answers. Aside the question if Gadget would ever be Chip's or even Dale's girlfriend, Gadget's past is one of the most intriguing issues about the series. It is something that has left the Rangerphiles wondering since _To The Rescue_ part 3 was aired for the first time. What is known about her is almost completely told in that episode. It's far from being enough to let the Rangerphiles know, but it's easily enough to let them ask.

What happened to Geegaw Hackwrench? In which way did Gadget lose him more than one year before she met the "Rangers to be"? What was the Zanzibar incident involving a cheese bread? And—what about Gadget's mother? All that's known is that she _has_ to have or have had a mother.

There is a legend with a lot of variations among the Rangerphiles telling that Geegaw, one of the best pilots ever, died in a plane crash. And there is something that's commonly known about legends—they tend to have a grain of truth within them...


	2. Act 1, chapter 1

**First Act: The Father**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Gadget's Flashback**

The summer was long gone, but the autumn was far from being dull and drab. In the Northeast, October meant Indian summer. Unbearable heat and smog in the cities had disappeared, and the yellow and brown leaves on the trees were glowing in the daylight. One participant in this annual spectacle was a large oak tree in New York City's Central Park, home and headquarters of a crime-fighting quintet of animals.

Of all seasons, this was Chip and Dale's favorite. Not only because the trees were never as colorful and beautiful as now, but also because the acorns were ripe. Living in a big city and so close to the human society, they were independent from collecting acorns and other kinds of nuts as a winter reserve. Nevertheless, each year's harvest of the fruits of their home tree was something they were looking forward to, because each year's acorns were different from those from the year before. And this oak tree was not only one of the biggest ones in the park, it also produced some of the best acorns.

"A good acorn," Chip said, "that can be compared with a good wine." Having lived in that tree for such a long time has made him a true acorn connoisseur.

"That's right, Chip," Dale replied, "and this year's acorns make me wish for chocolate-covered acorns."

It was noon, and the Rescue Rangers had gathered in the main room for a light lunch. Chip and Dale had brought in some samples right from the tree. The noise of cracking fresh acorns mixed with the scent of French cheese. That day's first case was already done. The Rangers had tracked down a gang of rodent cheese thieves who had robbed a grocer, and to Monterey Jack's pleasure, they had been rewarded with a fine piece of Brie '06 which had arrived from France the day before. Of course, he couldn't wait, so he had the first bits of this famous European dairy product for that lunch.

"I don't know much 'bout acorns an' the like, lads," Monty was able to say in between munching, "but I can tell ya that this is the finest Brie in twenty years. Gonna get some more when I pass by that grocer next time."

Zipper nodded approvingly. During his time with his old Australian friend, he had gotten more than used to cheese.

"Gadget luv, don't ya wanna 'ave a piece o' that masterpiece, too?"

"No thanks, Monty. I'm not hungry."

Usually cheerful, Gadget had given an unhappy impression throughout the last few days. But that day, she seemed downright depressed. She sat there and stared across the table at the opposite wall. Every now and then, she gave a sigh.

"What's up with ya, lass? Everyone's 'appy an' enjoyin' a wonderful autumn day, an' only you are sittin' here an' frownin'."

"Twenty years..."

"C'mon, ya can't miss the Brie '86 that much. Not even I do."

"It's not about a stupid cheese, Monty!" Gadget yelled out loud which made the chipmunks turn their heads. They rarely saw the inventor mouse in such a mood, so it was indeed a reason to be concerned.

Chip came and sat down next to Gadget. He asked her softly, "What was twenty years ago? Do you want to talk about it?"

Gadget looked around at her friends. After a bit of silence, she decided to tell them what brought her down. Talking about it felt right to her.

"It was November 1986 when I lost my father. Next month, it'll be twenty years. And I'm still not over it yet. Sit down on the couch, I've got a story to tell you. A story I haven't told anyone yet."

While Chip, Dale, Monty, and Zipper moved to the semi-circular couch, Gadget put up a teacup armchair right in front of them and sat in it.

"I can still remember it very well. Better than I wish I could, to be honest. Dad was a test pilot for Ultra-Flite, that company which had built the Screamin' Eagle. He had told me that they gave it to him as a gift back in the late Sixties. At least, he had it as long as I can remember. It had always been his plane. He maintained it over the years as well as he could, and when he found out about my mechanical skills and put some trust in them, he had me modify it a bit.

"So that particular November, he had a new test plane again. Most of Ultra-Flite's planes I've seen had electric motors and were powered by batteries. But then they must have decided to build a plane with a kerosene-powered jet engine. One day, Dad came back from Ultra-Flite with that jet plane. He told me it was for testing some devices for making navigation by night easier, and it was a jet because it had to be as fast as possible, and they didn't want to stick to those old-fashioned props. He invited me to a flight with that beast. A beast it was, it was actually the fastest rodent-sized aircraft I've ever been on. And it was my last flight together with my father.

"The same evening, he took off to what was scheduled to be the first of a series of nightly test flights over Long Island. Before he left, he hugged me and told me that he would be back the same night with such a fast plane. Then he jumped inside, closed the canopy, went through the checklist, started the engine, and flew away. I was a bit disquieted as I watched the plane disappear in the distance. I knew that he was an excellent pilot, and I knew how well he could fly that jet, but something seemed wrong.

"When I woke up the next morning, I was still all alone. Dad wasn't there, and the jet wasn't there either. I hoped that he was a bit delayed due to some technical difficulties, or maybe he had run out of gas and was walking back home now." It was slowly getting harder for Gadget to speak, her voice started breaking. "So I went to the airport terminal to get something for breakfast and the Rodent Times. Back home, I opened the newspaper like everyday, and there I read about a plane crash on Long Island. It had been a rodent plane... a horrible inferno with all that fuel in it, they said... and when I recognized the aircraft's tail on the photograph..."

The memories were too much for her. She had lived through the loss of her father once more. Her face dropped right into her hands as a flood of tears burst out of her. However, she was in the middle of telling her friends a story, and it was still a bit embarrassing for her to have them watch her cry. So she tried hard to get herself under control again.

About a minute later, she was able to speak clearly again. "Sorry. Well, that day I cried for five hours straight. I know since then what it's like to run out of tears. They just didn't come anymore.

"It was Dad's test plane, as you may have guessed. Later that day, a pigeon arrived and brought me a letter. Someone invited me to the funeral four days later. Dad was to be buried not far away from where he had crashed. Two things came to my mind. One was that I had to fly there. The other was that I would develop a severe fear of flying when I didn't get back in the air as soon as possible. I had some experience as a pilot by then. I've watched Daddy for years, and some time before, he had let me fly the Screamin' Eagle at his side for the first few times. But I've never piloted it all on my own.

"So I went outside, climbed into the Screamin' Eagle, and took off. No pre-flight check, nothing. I just wanted to fly. And I flew around 'til the sun went down. During the night, I let the batteries recharge, and the next day, I was up in the air again. I must admit I've cried quite much up there which is dangerous when no-one else is on board to have an eye on everything. It all reminded me of Dad, though, Monty, the Screamin' Eagle was your plane then. So I spent three days flying around. Just flying. Getting rid of the fear and gathering as much experience as I could.

"The hardest flight was four days later to the funeral. I had dyed one pair of overalls black the day before as I didn't have anything black to wear. The weather was as awful as it could be on a late November day with all that rain and storm. I flew all the way to that cemetery on Long Island through a horrible gale, and I didn't know if it was so hard to see anything because of the rain or because of my tears. Besides, I was totally overtired because I hadn't slept a minute since that day. Sometimes I think it was mere luck that I made it there.

"And there I was, standing in the chilly rain and wind and mud and crying almost all the time. They didn't bury Dad in a coffin. They said that his plane had burned so badly that they couldn't get him out, so they buried him inside the front half of the fuselage. He would certainly have liked the idea of being buried in an aircraft. The glass canopy was all gray and black from the fire, so I couldn't even see him in there. I guess I didn't really want to see him or what was left of him. However, when that half plane was hanging on that hoist above the open grave, I stared for a few seconds before I passed out.

"They had to interrupt the funeral until I woke up again. They didn't want to continue without the only relative of the deceased watching as they told me later. I lay in the Long Island mud, surrounded by Reverend Hazelnutt, he was a squirrel, and a handful of mice who attended the funeral, too. They helped me up so I could say a last farewell to Daddy before they buried the remains of the plane. Two of the mice were working for Ultra-Flite, so they knew my dad, and they had come there by plane. They decided that I could absolutely not fly back all the way to New York City in the terrible state I was, so one of them flew me back in the Screamin' Eagle. I must have cried myself to sleep during the flight because he had to wake me up when I was back at home. He was picked up by his workmate, and I crept into the old bomber where I fell asleep on the floor. I was so exhausted that I finally found the sleep I had needed the nights before.

"I lay on the hard floor and slept until next day's earliest morning hours. When I opened my eyes, I stared into the darkness that filled the bomber's fuselage. It was all quiet. And somehow, it felt colder than usual. And then I realized what it meant that Daddy wasn't there anymore. I was alone. I was all alone. I hadn't seen Monty since I was a tiny little mouse, and we had no neighbors. I hardly knew anyone out there. You know, I've never been to a real school with other kids. My school was at home, and Daddy was my teacher. And he was a great teacher. Sometimes we took the Screamin' Eagle and flew to places he wanted to show me during his lessons, mostly human or animal history. I've taught myself a whole lot of things later such as engineering, that was far beyond anything he could teach me. But until the last days, I was able to learn one thing or the other from him. And I believe that there was still so much more I couldn't have revealed myself and he could have taught me.

"Now I was all on my own. In fact, I was alone in the near vicinity, but I felt like there was nobody there for me anymore in the whole wide world. And then, I felt like I really wanted to be alone. I didn't want to see anyone. I locked myself away with my grief, though I decided that crying all day long didn't bring my father back. One day, someone knocked at the door. I opened up, and there was that mouse who wanted to see me for whatever reason. He didn't ask for my father, and there was no-one who actually knew me well enough to want to see me. Must have been a door-to-door salesman. However, I didn't want to see him. So I started to shout and yell at him, and I chased him away and locked the door. And as I couldn't shut the rear entrance, the one through the engine, I gathered masses of parts and material and built countless death traps for salesmen and whoever dared disturb me. That sounds crazy, I know, but while humans and rodents decorated their homes for Christmas, I totally mined mine. I put all that was left of my energy in setting them up, and after working for 40 hours straight without eating or sleeping, I broke down among my traps.

"Building those traps, I realized I had found something to distract me, and that was inventing. So I started to build all kinds of stuff, useful and useless, working and not quite working. From then on, I left the bomber only for scavenging food or parts, and I spent the rest of my time isolated from the rest of the world. My old cheerful self had gone, all that could cheer me up a bit was when an invention turned out great.

"Maybe the hardest time was a few weeks later. All the world celebrated the holiday of Christmas, but I felt left out. Nobody there to give gifts. Nobody there to receive gifts from. Nobody there to celebrate with. Nobody's love to share. I remember staring out of the window at the city in the morning of Christmas Eve. There were lights everywhere. It all looked so wonderful, especially with the sun slowly rising. The spirit of Christmas was in the air, but it didn't make it past the death traps. For the first time since I came back from the funeral, I did not want to be alone. Christmas was supposed to bring joy to the world, but it just brought more and more grief to me. Inventing didn't cheer me up the least bit. I even dug out my little stuffed kangaroo to at least have someone to talk to, someone to hold and love. I remembered that it was a Christmas present from Monty, but that hardly mattered anymore. When I felt the first hot tears almost burn my cheeks, I couldn't stand it any longer. I wanted someone I could talk with outside my imagination, someone who gave me real replies.

"I took my kangaroo with me when I jumped into the Screamin' Eagle and flew out to Long Island again to see Reverend Hazelnutt. I didn't want to leave my best substitute for a friend behind at home the way Daddy had left me behind, and I didn't want to be alone during the flight either. I rose up as high as I could over the city, so I couldn't see the Christmas decorations all over the city. But it was impossible to ignore them. I can still remember how I cried and hugged my kangaroo tightly when I saw the giant illuminated tree in front of the Waldorf Astoria. For the rest of the flight, I stared into the sky, and every once in a while, I took a glance at the clock to see where I was.

"About an hour later, I touched down on Long Island soil near that little chapel. I laid down some flowers on Daddy's large grave before I went to the chapel to see Reverend Hazelnutt. I guess he knew what the matter was when he saw me standing at the door, eyes wet and red, face frowned, traces of tears on my cheeks, and a kangaroo plush firmly clutched in my arms. He let me in, we sat down on one of the benches in the otherwise empty chapel, and I talked and cried and talked for hours. He didn't say much, but his few words managed to comfort me at least a bit. We spent the afternoon together, and I helped him prepare the Christmas service which I then attended in the evening. Reverend Hazelnutt did what he could to help me cheer up and get over my loss. He had all the attenders pray for me and for Daddy. I've never been overly religious, but I appreciate all his efforts very much." At this point of her story, Gadget wiped another tear from her face.

"After the service was over, I decided not to fly back home yet, not to spend the Christmas night all alone. So I slept in the plane. Reverend Hazelnutt had given me some blankets against the cold of the night. For maybe the first time in my life, I was glad about not having a white Christmas. The next morning, I woke up by a wonderful smell. The Reverend stood by the Screamin' Eagle and smiled at me. He had gotten me some breakfast. There was coffee, there were fresh cakes, it was just wonderful. And next to him stood a plastic Christmas tree with battery-powered LEDs for candles. He said that it should normally stand in the chapel, but he had carried it out and put it up there especially for me. We then had a long breakfast together. Before I left Long Island, I gave my father a last gift for Christmas. I installed a self-made weather vane looking like the Screamin' Eagle on his gravestone. I thought he'd like that.

"Back home, the Christmas wonder wasn't over yet. At the door, I found another illuminated plastic Christmas tree, a present, and a letter. I brought it all inside, put up the tree in the nose, and connected it to a power supply not to wear out the battery. Then I unpacked the present. It was a picture of my father in an oval frame, the one I've shown you when you came to me. The letter revealed who sent me all this. It came from the two Ultra-Flite mice I've met at the funeral. They just didn't want my Christmas to go down the drain, and they wanted me never to forget what a great guy my father was. I held the picture tight and started to cry. But this time, for the first time since long ago, I actually cried tears of joy.

"However, I decided to make it on my own, to be independent from anyone. I didn't want to depend on anyone's help. So, when Christmas was over, I went on dedicating most of my time to inventing. It was all I could do to keep my thoughts away from Dad. Not to forget him, but just not to spend the rest of my days mourning. Over the months in 1987, my skills grew on and on, and my inventions improved, so it wasn't all bad. It may sound sad, but I've even invented something for myself for my following two birthdays to have at least one present, the first of them was the Battlesphere.

"Christmas '87 was different again. I don't know if I should be glad about how it went along. In fact, I even tried to ignore Christmas. What was it good when you were on your own anyway? So I spent all Christmas Eve inventing things which didn't even have the slightest bit to do with Christmas. Most of them were of no use, and I dismantled them again later. It was just to have something to do. I was hardly even aware that it was Christmas. I thought I had gathered enough supplies to stay inside for weeks. But on Christmas Day, I started running out of food, and when I left the bomber to get some, I found an envelope lying in the grass with a Christmas card in it. It was from Reverend Hazelnutt. He wanted to see me and to know how I was after that year. So I flew to Long Island to visit him once more. I had almost forgotten how good it was to meet someone who cared for me. But I still tried to convince myself that I needed no-one.

"So I spent another six months alone at my place in the old bomber... inventing... celebrating yet another birthday on my own, actually not celebrating it at all... and only leaving it for supplies. Sometimes I missed my father so much that I worked all through the nights until I passed out due to a lack of sleep. It was the only way to get some sleep without having to think about him and to cry for hours.

"The death traps, by the way, were triggered three times since I had built them. The first two invaders were scared away quickly. I guess they were door-to-door salesmen. And the third time was in June '88 when you all came. I never thought that someone would ever get past the traps. But now I think that those who made it were the right ones. You guys led me out of this monotony. You showed me that there are more things in the world but spending all my time in a workshop and inventing all kinds of things, almost all of which were of no use for anyone. And you showed me what it's like to have friends who are always there for me."

Though it brought back many painful memories from her past, telling her story was quite a relief for Gadget. Her cheerfulness seemed to have returned. She was even smiling again.

"And I'd like to thank you all for that and for everything," she said as she got up from her armchair.

She sat down next to the rotund Aussie mouse and hugged him. "Monty, thank you for being as close to a father as one can be, and for saving us from opponents much stronger than us."

Monty put an arm around the mouse in lavender. "Aw, Gadget luv, y'know that me an' Geegaw were best friends, an' I owe 'im 'avin' an eye on 'is luvly li'l lass. Besides, life would be borin' without a good brawl once in a while."

Gadget got up again and moved on to Zipper. She picked him up from the sofa and gave him a careful hug. "Zipper," she said, "thank you for helping me with my inventions and all the Rangers when no-one else was able to help. And thank you for your never-expiring courage which saved us uncounted times."

As she put the fly back onto the sofa, Dale had already gotten up, knowing what was to come now. He received the next hug with accompanying words. "Dale, without you, crime fighting wouldn't be half as much fun. Without your spontaneity and your disguises, we'd never have made it this far. Not to mention all the times when it was up to you to rescue us all." Though his heart meanwhile belonged to Foxglove and Foxglove alone, Gadget was still able to make him blush.

Finally, she came to stand in front of Chip who had already stood up from the sofa in expectation. He knew that she was going to say something nice to him and hug him. She knew that she had to thank him for what he had done for her and for the Rangers, and she knew that in the near future she'd be holding him in her arms. But it was hard for her to find the right words with that chipmunk's face before her eyes. "Chip," she started, "I would like to thank you for... for being the best leader the Rescue Rangers could wish for... and for never giving up and always keeping on fighting for the good, no matter how perilous the situation... and..." In her mind, she continued, '...and for being such a lovely and wonderful guy,' followed by a confession how she loves him—which she knew now—and one passionate kiss to prove her feelings to him which had grown considerably over the past 16 years. But she didn't dare do that in front of all the other Rangers. So she went on with the words, "...well, for everything."

Slowly and in a way tenderly, her arms slid around his shoulders and his neck as she pulled herself close to him. He reacted automatically by holding her with his hands and forearms gently pressing on her back. He loved to feel her close to him, her hair falling over his hands, her heart pounding about as wildly as his own, and her cheek touching his in what was more of a snuggle than a hug. Aware that her face was hidden from the other Rangers behind his head, she allowed herself to close her eyes.

After about half a minute in each other's arms, much longer than she had hugged anyone else, she let go of him again, but now they stared at each other. Like numerous times in the past, Chip noticed how Gadget still was as beautiful as when he saw her for the first time. She was half as old then as she was now, but she hadn't lost the slightest bit of her young and adorable looks, as if she had invented a way to conserve her youth. Their friends were not very surprised about their behavior, having already suspected for some years what was going on between the two of them. However, to remind them that there were still other folks around, Monty decided to say something. "I take it that yer grievin's over, Gadget luv."

From one moment to another, they released their eyes from each other. "Yes, Monty," Gadget said with a smile, "I'm feeling better now... now that I've revealed to you that part of my past." Her love for Chip was definitely a better feeling than her mourning for her father. Even her appetite was back. She was the first to sit down at the table again and continue lunch.

"Y've 'eard 'er, lads, 'er phase o' sadness is over." He concluded his words with a bit of French he had learned from his former fiancée Désirée D'Allure. "Bon appetit!"


	3. Act 1, chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Zipper's Discovery**

In contrast to what Monty had predicted, this phase came back and lasted longer than anyone had wished for. In fact, the guys started to worry about Gadget who had locked herself away in her workshop again immediately after lunch. For a while, they had heard noises as if she was just carrying some parts around and placing them somewhere. But these noises had ceased, and now, nothing could be heard coming from the workshop door but a disturbing silence.

The one who was most concerned about the recent developments was Monty. He had always been to Gadget the favorite uncle she never had, he had even tried the best he could to be the father she didn't have anymore. If anyone of the Rangers understood her or at least attempted to, then it was him.

He was busy in his preferred place at the Headquarters—the kitchen—in the doorway to which his head appeared. "Any news from our li'l sheila, mates?"

"No news, Monty," Chip replied from the sofa on which he and Dale were sitting and reading a detective novel and a super hero comic respectively. He had instructed his old friend to leave the television turned off, so he could hear what was happening at the workshop. Indeed, he was hardly less disquieted about the girl of his dreams than his Australian teammate.

"Don't worry, Chipper," Dale tried to cheer him up, "no news are good news."

"Not this time, Dale. The longer it stays this way, the worse." He sighed, put Sureluck Jones down for a while, and glanced into the direction of the workshop. "Hard to believe that she's still not over losing her father. Even if she didn't have anyone else for a great part of her life."

Meanwhile, Zipper was high above the city, performing a patrol flight. He had that idea some time ago, and Chip liked it. One single fly was not only less suspicious than any of Gadget's aircraft, he was also harder to discover in the sky and much nimbler in case he was discovered. Sometimes, the Rangers split up, with Zipper doing the aerial surveillance and the rest looking for cases at the police station. But today, said rest had decided to stay at the Headquarters. They were sure that Gadget was in no condition to go anywhere with them, and they didn't want to leave her alone either.

This time, his flight took him to the airport where everything began. At the fringes of the airfield, the old B-25 Mitchell was still standing, the World War II bomber in which Gadget had lived before she had met him, Chip, and Dale. Now that nobody dwelt in the old plane anymore to maintain it, it was deteriorating more and more. Zipper descended and headed for the plane to have a closer look, just for the old times, when something unusual struck him.

In the grass which had been cut over the past years not to have a jungle growing on the airfield, there was a fresh path leading from the nearest runway to the vicinity of the bomber. At the end of the path, something shone in the afternoon sun. Zipper closed up and found a modified model airplane. It had one propeller engine, two seats in a closed cabin, and not only the very same tone of lavender as Gadget's overalls, but even a stripe on every side in the purple of her belts. Whoever the owner or the pilot was, he or she liked giving aircraft a name. The name of this plane was written on both sides of the tail—"Beatrice".

'Beatrice?' Zipper wondered. 'Who would give his plane such a name?'

His question was about to be answered as he spotted a most likely male mouse climbing into the bomber—not the usual way which Gadget had mined with her death traps, but one which seemed secret, almost like known only by who had lived in the plane. Although there was nothing to take from out of the plane, save the traps, Zipper decided that this stranger should not get away unobserved, and that reporting these events to the other Rangers had a high priority, so he followed the mouse up to the secret entrance-which he then was unable to retrieve.

He shook his head. 'Don't bother how he got in there, Zipper. What's more important is who he is.'

To find that out, he flew up the fuselage, clinging to it as close as he could not to be seen from inside, and then approached the large windows making up the bow. Taking a glance into the old bomber, he could finally see the strange rodent pilot-who all of a sudden was not that strange anymore. It was a male mouse of about Monterey Jack's age, wearing a bomber jacket and a scarf, and holding an aviator cap and a pair of goggles in his hand. Despite having no wings, he must have spent more hours in the air than Zipper himself. And his facial expression was not a happy one as he stood in the empty front section.

'Geegaw... That's impossible. But he looks like the guy on Gadget's picture. And he's here, at Geegaw's place. He's even a pilot. Can that really be...'

Details of Gadget's storytelling earlier that day came back to his mind.

'She said she has never seen his corpse... What if...'

Seconds later, a housefly in a red pullover sped through the New York City skies as if being chased by a hungry predator, heading straight for the Rescue Rangers Headquarters...

...where the tension due to the silence kept rising and was way above a level which rendered the three Rangers in the main room unable to go on any case.

"Chip," Dale asked his friend, "may it just be that she's finished her latest invention?"

"I doubt that she's invented anything. That didn't sound like building something. Besides, if she had completed an invention, don't you think she'd be here and show it to us now?"

With a worried gaze to the front door, Chip continued, "What if Zipper comes in now with a case to go on? What shall we do with Gadget in that state?"

As if that had been his cue, Zipper pushed the door open vehemently and came dashing in, gasping for breath after his high-speed flight. As soon as he was able to talk again, his first words announced that his fellow Rangers would never believe what he saw.

"I've rarely ever seen me li'l pally that excited," Monty said. "C'mon, Zipper, tell us what we won't believe!"

Zipper tried hard to reduce his wheezing to a minimum as he told them about the mouse looking like Gadget's father.

"Geegaw," Monty muttered, "y've got some nerves ta come back 'ere, mate..."

Chip turned his head around. "What?"

"Oh, nothin', Chipper. Nothin'."

"You have said something, Monty. Do you honestly believe that Geegaw can still be alive?"

Zipper declared that he did so, and he explained Chip how.

"Right... Gadget has told us that the canopy of Geegaw's plane was all black. It was impossible to see Geegaw's remains in the remains of his plane. There's no proof that he was in there."

"Crikey, Chip," Monty admitted, "yer one bonzer detective ta find that out!"

"Monty, I haven't found out anything so far, I've just supposed something." Chip felt as if Monty, being Geegaw's lifetime friend, knew more than he was willing to share with the other Rangers. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but whatever that was, if anything, he was sure he'd find it out.

"So, shall we tell Gadget about it?" Dale asked.

"We must tell her," Chip answered. "After all, he's her dad. Given that it is him."

The chipmunks got up and on their way to the workshop, joined by Monterey Jack and Zipper. Soon, they stood before the still silent door. They knew that they couldn't just open it and walk in as if nothing had happened. So Dale gathered all his courage, made a step forward, and carefully knocked on the door.

"Come in," Gadget's weak, somehow sad voice sounded from inside.

What they saw as they stepped into the workshop was hard to believe. Gadget stood near the door and stared at the debris of the Screamin' Eagle, all arranged on their original positions as if to reassemble her father's plane, despite most of them being damaged too severely to ever be part of an aircraft again. The inventor mouse was not moving nor making any noise, but the traces of her tears went down from her eyes over her overalls to her feet. The photograph of her father, the one in the oval frame, sat on what used to be the pilot's seat.

"Tha- that's-..." Dale stuttered.

"That's the Screamin' Eagle, right, Dale," Gadget completed what he tried to pronounce, "or rather what's left of it. Remember when we moved here? When I wasn't with you for a whole day? I've been to Glacier Bay once more to retrieve what was left of Dad's plane including the Ice Breaker. I've also replaced all parts I had salvaged from the Eagle to build the Rangerplane. So, what do you guys want?"

What were they to do now? Tell her straight into her face that her dad's back?

"Gadget luv..." Monty was the first to try, "it's kinda hard ta tell ya... 'specially now... but, um, it may be possible that..."

"Golly, Monty, what can be so hard to say?"

"Well... er... as I said, it may be possible that... yer dad's alive." He felt slightly relieved by finishing his sentence. But not entirely.

"...and in town," Dale added.

"Zipper says he has seen him in the plane where the two of you lived," Chip finished the message.

"Shall that be a trick to cheer me up?" Gadget snarled. "In that case, you've achieved the exact opposite! I give you ten seconds to..."

A split-second later, Zipper hovered in front of her face and told her every detail of what he had seen. The secret entrance. Her own memories of Geegaw's so-called funeral. The little plane in her colors. It was the name of the aircraft that finally convinced her.

"The plane is named... 'Beatrice'?"

Zipper nodded.

"Alright, I believe you. You can't have made up that for me. Nobody knows that but Dad and me."

Chip was as confused as the other male Rangers. "What does 'Beatrice' mean?"

Gadget explained them, "Beatrice... is my second name. Gadget Beatrice Hackwrench."

"Y've got a second name? An' even I didn't know it yet? Cor blimey, me an' Geegaw will 'ave a lot ta chat about. Er, if that is Geegaw, of course."

"Okay," Chip called his team, "Geegaw or not, that mouse won't wait there forever. I hereby declare that we're on a case. Rescue Rangers, away!"

Not losing any time, the Rangers ran and flew respectively to the hangar and piled into the Rangerwing, including Zipper who wasn't keen on flying all that distance a third time the same day. Chip sat down on the pilot's seat and had Dale sit by his side. He couldn't rely on Gadget not getting doubts and doing a U-turn, and Monty's behavior seemed weird lately, too. It was out of question which aircraft to take. The Rangerwing was their standard aircraft, it was faster than the Rangerplane, and if they really were to meet Geegaw, Gadget wanted to impress him right away with one of her greatest and most useful inventions.

Though he hadn't been at that airport quite often, and though his last visit there was some years ago, Chip remembered the way he had to take. Not one single word was spoken during the flight. Chip concentrated on piloting, Gadget tried hard to prepare herself mentally for whatever and above all whoever was awaiting her in her old place, Monty hoped that Geegaw, in case it was him, had forgiven him for the Zanzibar incident, Dale felt that this situation was totally inappropriate for any comedy relief, so he preferred to shut up, and Zipper didn't want to be the only one to have some verbal communication.

As the Rangers arrived at the airport, Chip switched to hover mode to survey the bomber and its surroundings. Gadget had modified the hover mode controls to improve the transition. The two motors quickly changed direction to work as air brakes and rather slowly moved to a vertical position to take over the weight of the aircraft as the Rangerwing slowed down. From their location high above the ground, they could easily examine the whole area around the old B-25.

Dale was the first to speak again after he had discovered something in the grass. "Zipper, there's the plane you've told us about."

Monty leaned over and looked down, being careful not to top the Rangerwing over, and he saw it, too. "Crikey, it does 'ave the same color as yer overalls, Gadget. An' when it's true what ya said 'bout the stripe an' the name, Zipper, it belongs ta someone who knows our Gadget quite well."

Again, Chip wondered why Monty was so certain that it was Geegaw. "Gadget," he asked his only female companion on that mission, "are the death traps still there?"

"Yes," she approved, "but I haven't re-armed them after you guys triggered them. They shouldn't be dangerous to anyone now."

Gadget's words didn't help Chip feel as safe as he desired to, not only because she used that certain S-word, but also because he remembered some traps which could be triggered multiple times. Nevertheless, he landed the Rangerwing on one of the bomber's wings. "Okay, everyone, we go and see who is in there."

But not everyone was eager to follow Chip's order, it rather looked like a team of three was to examine the interior. "I'll stay outside an' 'ave an eye or two on the landscape," Monty said. "Ya never know who's comin' to pay yer a visit." And he didn't mean any door-to-door salesmen.

And though she was the main person among the Rangers on this case, Gadget decided not to go down into the plane, too. "Chip... if you don't mind, I'd like to stay here with Monty. He has his reasons, and so have I."

"C'mon, Gadget luv, y'aven't crashed yer father's plane, y've crashed my plane. Ya told me yerself that ol' Geegaw wanted me t'ave the Eagle, so it was mine. Now go an' see yer daddy an' give 'im a hug from me, too."

"No... I can't. Not yet. What if it's not him?"

Chip knew he couldn't force Gadget to come with him. "I tell you something," he proposed, "you two. When we want you to come down to us, or when whoever that is wants you to come, we call you. Alright?"

"Alright," Gadget replied.

"Alright," Chip repeated, "let's go. Zipper, have a look out for still armed traps while we walk through the danger zone."

Together with her old Australian friend, the inventor mouse watched her three friends disappear in the engine compartment where the main entrance was. Now she remembered that some of the traps were still potentially dangerous after all those years. But she reminded herself that they had made it past the traps already once. All traps had been armed back then, and they had managed to trigger them all and survive them anyway.


	4. Act 1, chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Encounter With The Past**

The mouse in the bomber jacket found it hard to grasp what he had found in the bomber, or rather what he had not found. 'She's not here anymore. Nothing's here anymore. My little girl, her inventions, the workshop, all the furniture, even the plane, everything's gone.' He sighed. 'I wish I knew where she is.' However, something gave him the feeling that his little girl was very close to him. 'I miss you... I wonder where you are now... and if I ever find it out.'

Once again, the traps behind the former cockpit section caught his attention. 'Has she built all these? Tell me, Steph, how can our cheerful little daughter have gone so cruel to set up so many deadly traps in her home?' Slowly, he began to realize that it may be linked with his disappearing. 'Why didn't they allow me to take her with me? After all, it was all about her mother, and it still is.'

His view locked on the blowtorch hanging down from the ceiling when suddenly a green housefly appeared out of nowhere and disarmed it by detaching the triggers. 'Huh? What's that fly doing there?'

The fly was not alone, someone else's voices sounded through the plane from quite close. "That was the last one? Thanks, Zipper! Come on, Dale, let's meet our guest." Guest? He was no guest. This was his home. At least it used to be. The real guests, if not intruders, were the two chipmunks stepping out from behind the safe which still lay in the way to the aft section and the main entrance. One of them wore a bomber jacket not quite unlike his own and a fedora hat, and the other one wore a loud red Hawaiian shirt with yellow flowers. Did they have something to do with the missing of his daughter?

After they had left their hiding-place behind the safe, Chip and Dale saw the mouse for the first time. And though he didn't look as young as on Gadget's picture anymore, it was most certainly him.

"Geegaw..." Chip and Dale almost whispered in unison. They stood and stared at the mouse who was now walking towards them. Zipper hovered between them, he was just as amazed to finally see him without glass between them.

"Who are you," the mouse shouted, "and where's my daughter?"

'He does have a reason to be angry,' Chip thought, 'I can understand him quite well. I would react the same way if I found my home devoid of my family and my stuff.' Despite being excited about maybe meeting a living legend, he answered the first question politely, "Excuse me not introducing us earlier. I'm Chip Maplewood, and these are Zipper Lightringer and Dale Oakmont. We are the Rescue Rangers... well, three of them. I take it that you are Geegaw Hackwrench, right?"

"That's my name, yes. Now can you answer my question concerning my daughter? Do you have to do something with her not being here? Or can you at least help me find her, you who call themselves 'Rescue Rangers'?"

"Your daughter, Gadget, is here. She's outside on the wing together with your old friend, Monterey Jack Colby."

Geegaw was speechless. Was this chipmunk telling the truth? "You know Monterey Jack?"

"As I said, he's here. He and Gadget are the other two Rescue Rangers. You need proof? Dale, go get Monty."

"Aye, aye, Chip!" Dale ran back past the no more working traps to return a minute later with the burly Australian mouse whose eyes widened upon seeing Geegaw for the first time in twenty years.

Geegaw's reaction was hardly different. At first, he was unable to pronounce more than, "Monty..."

"Geegaw... me ol' pally... so nice ta 'ave ya back..."

"Monty... long time no see... a very, very long time..."

It took the two old adventurers some seconds to realize that they were finally reunited before they embraced each other.

"Geegaw, I've always asked meself when ya'd finish yer mission an' come back! Say, yer no more upset 'bout Zanzibar?"

"Forgotten and forgiven, Monty! After all, I've found what I've been looking for!"

"No! Y've found 'er? How's she doin'?"

"I'll tell you later. I'd love to see my daughter now." Geegaw turned to the Rangers' leader in excitement. He knew that he could trust them, now that they had brought him together with his best friend. "Chip, you said she's here. Can I see her?"

"Easy, Geegaw. You can't just walk out there and go, 'Hi Gadget, Daddy's back!' Remember, a part of her still believes you're dead. And less than an hour ago, the whole of her believed that. Dale and I go first, and you two follow and get out on the wing when Zipper tells you to."

"You'd better do what he says," Dale advised Geegaw before he went ahead with Chip, "he's the leader."

Gadget was meanwhile wandering around on the wing, lost in thoughts. 'Can he be alive? Sure, if he was, he'd come here to see me. And Zipper had a point when he mentioned that I had no proof that Dad was in the wreck of his plane when they buried it. But why should he fake his own death in a plane crash and stay away for two decades?'

Her train of thoughts was interrupted by noises coming from the engine compartment. She turned around and saw her chipmunk friends climb out of and Zipper hover above the engine. "Chip! Dale! What have you seen? Was it him?"

The chipmunks stood up on her sides. "Close your eyes, Gadget," Chip said, "we've got a surprise for you." He gave Zipper a sign, and the fly disappeared in the engine to meet the two mice waiting inside the wing and tell them to come.

"Okay, Geegaw, it's showtime." Monty climbed up before his friend and took a glance at the scene on the wing. "There she is, our li'l Gadget. Looks like the 'munks 'ave told her ta shut 'er eyes. So be quiet up 'ere, I don't want 'er ta 'ear ya before she sees ya."

As he silently stepped onto the wing surface, Geegaw saw his daughter for the first time since twenty years. "Ohmygosh, Monty," he whispered, "look at her. She's grown up to a beautiful young woman."

"She's not that young anymore," Monty whispered back, "but yer right, fer some reason, she's quit agin' in 'er early twenties."

"Just like her mother. She's still the same beauty I've married way back then. She's told me the secret of her eternal youth once, but I can't remember it too well. Just that much: It has something to do with where she's now."

"Hush now, yer almost there, an' she's got one fine 'earin' sense."

Geegaw came to stand right before Gadget. Chip gave Dale a wink, and they told her in unison, "You may now open your eyes."

So she did. And there she saw him. Her father. He was alive. He was there. He was so close she was able to touch him. A dream she never dared dreaming had come true. She didn't say a word. She didn't move a muscle. She just stared for a moment—and fainted.


	5. Act 1, chapter 4

**Chapter 4: More Than He Asked For**

Slowly but steadily, Gadget regained her consciousness and pushed the black fogs around her mind aside. As she managed to lift her eyelids, she became aware of not being on the wing of the old bomber anymore. She actually wasn't even sure if she had really been there, and if what she remembered had really happened. Now she found herself on the couch back at the Headquarters. Someone was holding her hand. And turning her head and focusing her eyes revealed Chip kneeling next to her and looking at her.

"She's okay, everybody," he said, "she's waking up."

The familiar face to her side and the hand in hers made her smile. "Hi Chip."

"Hi Gadget," he replied with a soft voice and a smile. "Nice to have you back. How are you feeling?"

"I dunno yet. What has happened? How long have I been away? And how did I get here?"

"One and a half hours. You've passed out when we were on the plane you used to live in. I guess you'd still be out cold if I hadn't caught your fall so that your head didn't hit the wing. Monty flew us back then." For a moment, Chip thought about telling Gadget about how he sat on the back seat with her, holding her in his arms. But he decided not to let her know yet.

So it was no dream. She had been there, and she had been unconscious. "But what would have made me pass out?" she wondered.

"Gadget, here's someone who'd like to explain everything to you." Chip gently caressed her forehead with his hand. With more and more of her mind returning, she realized several things. One, Chip's hand was slightly trembling as if he was excited about something. Two, it was his right hand caressing her. But it was another right hand she held. Three, there was someone sitting next to Chip, probably the owner of that hand.

And four, she knew that someone.

"Daddy?"

Geegaw's left hand joined his right hand around his daughter's. "Gadget. I'm glad you're alright."

Gadget sat up and stared at her father for half a minute. "Daddy..." Her voice began to break.

This was the moment which Geegaw had feared the most when he decided to return to Gadget.

She fell around his neck and started crying immediately. "Daddy," she pushed through her tears, sobbing, "oh Daddy, how could you do that to me?" The other Rangers stood around the two of them, realizing that these were no tears of joy. "How could you leave me and make me believe you're dead? Do you have a clue what I went through?" she almost yelled.

Geegaw tried to comfort her. "Gadget, I'm sorry for what I've done. I can imagine how hard it was for you. But I had no choice. The RAS sent me on an important mission."

Gadget let loose again so her father could look into her eyes which were slowly growing blood red. "I thought you were a test pilot for Ultra-Flite. You've never told me you were working for the Rescue Aid Society. So, how important can that mission have been that not even I was told about it?"

"I wasn't working for the RAS, Gadget," Geegaw explained. "They were working for us. For us and for someone else. And this mission was very important for the both of us, for you as well as for me, and for that someone else."

"Who is that someone else?"

"It's your mother. The mission was to retrieve her. It took me almost 20 years to find her. And it was an undercover mission, so secret that I had to make everyone who knew me believe in my death."

"I have a mother? Well, I must have had a mother, otherwise I would most probably not exist. But how come I don't remember her?"

"It's because she left us when you were only a few weeks old. She'll tell you what happened back then when we've got her back, your mother and my wife. Say, Gadget, can you help me complete my mission?"

It was Chip who answered Geegaw's question. "Geegaw, the Rescue Rangers are at your service. We will help you reunite your family."

Though sounding promising, the term was still rather unknown to Geegaw. "These 'Rescue Rangers', what are they? And what are they doing?" At least he had memorized the few new names,

"Allow me to give you an explanation. The Rescue Rangers, that's me, my best friend Dale, your long-time pal Monterey Jack who has found quite a use for his experiences from his countless adventures, his old friend Zipper—well, not as old as you of course—, and last but not least your daughter Gadget, our main pilot and chief engineer. The Rescue Rangers deal with all kinds of rescuing missions and criminal cases."

"My daughter is a member of this group?"

"Not only a member. She supplies us with almost all our technical equipment. For example, the aircraft you've seen, the one we led you here with," Geegaw had followed them in his own plane, "is one of Gadget's inventions. And she helps us in many, many more ways. I think you have enough reasons to be proud of her."

"Oh, when it's the way you say, I'm surely proud of her. Y'know, I've wondered where you've gotten that team of technicians and engineers from to do all the installations in here." Geegaw turned to his daughter. "But now that I know that you've done it all..." He gave her a hug, and she finally forgot the rest of anger about his sudden disappearing. "Gadget, I'm as proud of you as a father can be."

Chip watched the heart-warming scene of father and daughter reunited after two decades of separation. He waited patiently for them to finish before he went on, "Back to your mission, Geegaw. As I said, we'll help you gladly. Not only because it's our duty, but also because it affects one of our members. You can put your trust in 18 years of dedication to justice and freedom. So, what's your decision?"

Geegaw felt that he couldn't have it any better, not even with a bunch of RAS agents. These guys gave him an impression like they could do anything. Besides, he knew that Gadget and Monty really could do about anything. "Deal. I need as many helping hands as I can get. You may consider this case yours, Rescue Rangers."

"It's an honor for us to work for you," Chip said. "Now, what's it about? Where is your wife?"

"Bethesda, Maryland," was Geegaw's brief answer.

"That's where the National Institute for Mental Health is," Chip remembered.

This term caught Dale's attention. "NIMH? Like in the movie?"

Geegaw confirmed, "Like in the movie, Dale. It's even more like in the movie than you may all expect. Obviously, Robert C. O'Brien based his novel on the memories of a rodent, whatever way he got hold of them, and Don Bluth made it an animated feature. Believe it or not, the NIMH incident with the super-intelligent mice and rats did happen. That was back in '68. Bluth has changed many things about the story, and I'm not sure if O'Brien left it untouched, but the NIMH part itself happened roughly that way."

"Neato!" Dale commented. "And now they have Gadget's mom?"

"Yes, they have her. Again. It was there where I saw her for the first time. I flew past in a test plane, and that beautiful mouse in that cage behind that window immediately struck my eyes. That was in March '69. The folks at NIMH had repeated their experiment with that certain injection, but this time on only one animal to be safe, and that was her. She had been there for half a year, and I decided that she wouldn't stay there any longer. I landed on the window-sill, she got out of the cage and managed to open the window from inside, and we flew away. Her combination of beauty and incredible intelligence really caught me. It was love at first sight, and at second sight it grew borderline obsessive." Chip sighed. He knew just too well what Geegaw was talking about. "We married the same spring, but certain incidents forced her to leave me and live the life of a fugeteer. And now she's back at NIMH, though I wonder what she's kept there for."

Even Gadget had heard this story for the first time. "You mean..."

"Yes, Gadget. Stephanie Wheatfield Hackwrench, your mother and my wife, is the 12th mouse of NIMH. And her blood runs through your veins."

"This explains my mind-bashingly high IQ."

"This, and your constant using and training your brains since you were a little child. You haven't inherited all your intelligence from your mom. I'd even say that you're even more intelligent than her."

Chip felt like an important question bugging him for years was to be answered now. "Geegaw, is that also the reason why Gadget is still looking as young and beautiful as when we met her for the first time?" These words made Gadget blush.

"Yes, Chip, that's the reason. After being given that treatment, mice and rats age extremely slowly once they're grown up. Stephanie has explained it to me years ago, so I don't remember that much of it. But I remember her supposing that both the intelligence and the slowed-down aging of a rodent of NIMH can be passed on to the children to a certain degree, even if the other parent is a normal rodent. I don't know what happened to the Frisby kids, but I do know that this has happened to us."

For a moment, Chip and Gadget exchanged glances, enjoying the idea of Gadget being forever young. But then, Chip directed his mind back to the case.

"So it's just going there, getting your wife out, and coming back? That's nothing more than a simple rescue mission. Like one of our very first cases, only that we don't have to deal with a crazy scientist this time. Sounds easy."

"I don't wanna disappoint you, Chip," Geegaw said, "but if it was that easy, I'd have done it on my own, and Steph would be here now. But as you can see, I need help, and I'm grateful for all help I can get. Completing my mission will be tough enough."

That was about what Monty wanted him to say. "Glad ta 'ear that, mate. What'd a case be without a fair share o' challenges?"

Chip smirked. "See, Geegaw, it doesn't always have to be the easy way. When do you think we shall leave? Tomorrow?"

"No," the aviator mouse shook his head, "there's only one way to do it, and that's at night when the lab staff isn't there and the guard dogs are asleep." He looked to one of the windows and saw the darkness of the night slowly displace the sunlight of the day. "We have to leave as soon as we can."

"We can leave immediately," Chip reassured him. "Gadget, will the Rangerwing's batteries make it to Bethesda and back?"

"No problem, Chip. It was connected to the charger before we flew to the airport. We could fly to Key West and back with the spotlight on all the time." Irony of fate was that Gadget had installed rechargeable NiMH batteries four years ago.

"As I said, we can leave immediately. Geegaw, get to your plane. You'll lead us."

For the first time, Geegaw heard the Rangers' famous battle cry as everyone headed for the hangar. "Rescue Rangers, away!" And only a few moments later, two rodent-sized airplanes rose up into the cloudy evening sky with a destination somewhere in the South, Beatrice with Geegaw ahead, the Rangerwing with the Rangers following.

Gadget gazed into the almost darkness through her goggles. "I'm glad that Dad has mounted some LEDs on his plane. It would be hard to see him when it's really dark." She sighed. "It's so wonderful to have him back. And now I'll meet my mother. For the first time in 36 years."

"You're not angry at him anymore?" Chip couldn't help but find that she looked like hardly more than half as old as she was. It had always struck him, but now he knew the reason.

"Well, I can't say I'm content with what he did. But he had to do it, he had to do it that way, and don't forget that he did it for me, too. Anyway, I'd like to hear the whole story when we're all reunited."

"So do I," Monty's voice came from behind. "I'm curious 'bout what ol' Geegaw did after Zanzibar."

"Zanzibar?" Gadget turned her head around. "You've never told me that you two were there. And neither did Dad."

"Yes," Chip wondered, "how come me, Dale and Zipper know about Zanzibar—well, at least a bit, and Gadget doesn't know anything?"

"Zanzibar was a part o' the mission. It 'appened after she lost 'er father. An' I was in it 'cause I met 'im when the mission started an' when 'e was officially pronounced dead. Geegaw convinced the RAS folks ta let me come with 'im, mainly 'cause I knew 'e was still alive. They were afraid I could go an' tell Gadget the truth. But then... Y'know, I thought that cheese bread ended our friendship when 'e left me be'ind an' went on tryin' ta find 'is wife."

"C'mon, Monty," Dale begged, "tell us more about Zanzibar!"

"I promise ya that me an' Geegaw will tell ya when we're back, okay? I dunno all the details 'e knows. An' I guess Gadget's mom will 'ave 'er part ta tell, too."


	6. Act 2, chapter 5

**Second Act: The Mother**

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Maryland Mission**

The further Geegaw and the Rangers flew, the fewer clouds covered the sky, and the chillier the air was. Meanwhile, the wristwatch on the Rangerwing's dashboard showed that it was past midnight. Stars were sparkling, and the full moon was shining down on the two aircraft when they had reached Maryland. It didn't take long until Geegaw's plane started to descend, followed by the Rangers'. They flew along a fence for a while before they touched down. Geegaw got out and motioned the Rangers to join him.

They walked to a door between the roots of a tree. It was guarded by a young mouse wearing a simple blue turtleneck. "The RAS members still don't wear uniforms," Geegaw explained.

"What is this place, Geegaw?" Monty asked.

"This is the Rescue Aid Society Field Headquarters, Bethesda, Maryland," the guard told them, "a branch of the Maryland Headquarters in Baltimore. Who shall I report?"

Geegaw told him, "I take it Captain Stewart is here. Go and let him know that Geegaw Hackwrench is here, sonny. He's awaiting me."

"Alright, sir. One moment, please." The guard disappeared through the door. Again, Geegaw felt the need for an explanation. "NIMH has been under RAS surveillance since 1963 when they found out about the animals imprisoned in there and abused in experiments. Nicholas Stewart has joined the RAS in '68, shortly after the big breakout incident. Thanks to his cleverness, he had received many offers to go to Baltimore or even to New York, but he refused to leave his post in Bethesda. Well, at least he's Captain now. He already was Sergeant when I first met him in '69 after freeing Steph."

"Have they never made an attempt to liberate the animals?" Gadget wondered. "I mean, they should be able to get enough mice here to do that."

Geegaw laid his arm around his daughter. "It's impossible, Gadget. They did have some plans, and it is and has always been one of their goals, but even Nick had no idea how to get past the guard dogs. There are four of them. A Doberman quartet. The RAS did get a few animals out of a van a few times, but they never got any animal outside this fence. They wouldn't even go in there themselves."

"Daddy, nothing's impossible. They just need the right equipment. If it was impossible, I wouldn't exist."

"That's of course right, Gadget," Geegaw said with a smile, "but they don't have any engineers as smart as you. They don't have any personnel to construct or fly an aircraft. Even today, they're still relying on Albatross Airlines when it comes to flying. And I don't know one single albatross who can land or take off here, and at the same time stay out of reach for the dogs."

Suddenly, the door burst open. "Geegaw!" Out came a mouse in a gray shirt, seemingly in his late 20s.

"Nick! Nice to see you, my friend! Rescue Rangers, this is Captain Nicholas Stewart of the RAS. Nick, these are the Rescue Rangers."

Captain Stewart started to shake everyone's hands. When he came to Gadget, he reckoned, "This beauty must be your daughter, Gadget, am I right?" The word "beauty" tinted Gadget's cheeks reddish.

"Right."

"So she's that famous inventor of the Rescue Rangers. Well, well, the world is small, even for mice. So, Geegaw, are we on another liberation mission?"

"Exactly, Nick. 37 years after getting my wife out of this building, I'll do it again. And this time, I've got a crew."

"Well, I wish you good luck!"

"Excuse me, Captain," Dale interjected, "Geegaw has told us you've been here for almost 40 years now. How come you're still lookin' so young?"

"A good question, and frequently asked..."

"Dale's the name."

"...Dale. Let me tell you a little story."

Geegaw and the Rescue Rangers gathered around the chief of the Headquarters.

"Let me start this way. I've been in there myself. And I've been in there until 1968 when they performed that experiment which turned 11 mice and 20 rats super-intelligent. I was one of them, one of the so-called Mice of NIMH, that's why I'm looking younger than I am. We tried to escape through the air-conditioning canals. The rats and two mice made it, but the rest of us was blown out of the building. Though this experiment should have increased our lifetime immensely, it shortened it for many of us as drastically. Four mice didn't make it over the fence. Three of them were already dead when the guard dogs got them, and the fourth... At least, they distracted the dogs from Ages, Frisby and the rats who then managed to escape. I, however was one of the lucky five to fly to safety. My best friend wasn't as lucky. He died in my arms, suffering from the heavy injuries from his landing. Me and two buddies buried him, and then we somehow made it to the RAS Field Headquarters despite being injured ourselves. Still in the infirmary, we joined the RAS to do something useful with our IQ."

Gadget counted the rodents. "Eleven mice, you said. Ages. Frisby. You three. Your friend. The four victims of the guard dogs. What happened to the eleventh mouse?"

"That's a good question. And I'll gladly tell you the answer. It's not the NIMH staff keeping her in there. It's the eleventh mouse. His name is Vincent van Thomas, As far as I knew him, I knew he'd never use the intelligence he gained in there for doing good. I didn't know who of us had received that injection, and I always hoped that van Thomas wasn't among them until he joined us on the escape from the labs. After the escape, we lost his trail. Sometime later, we at the RAS Field Headquarters found out that he had returned to NIMH, but we haven't found out his reasons yet, nor how he gets in and out. I'm sure that he didn't come back to be a help for NIMH, though. It was most probably all a part of his plan to track down your mother and get her back to the labs. We don't know what he needs her for, but he surely doesn't mind her being married. I can only guess, but I guess he saw her in there, too, and he got a crush on her just like your father."

"Golly, my mother is in the hands of a super-intelligent, potentially evil mastermind?"

"Yes, that's it, kind of."

"And it's our task to get her out of there. Let's go now," Chip motivated his team, "the night won't last forever."

Monty immediately felt motivated. "Yer right, Chipper me lad, we 'aven't come 'ere fer nothin' but talkin'."

While the Rescue Rangers entered the Rangerwing again, Geegaw shook Captain Stewart's hand once more. "Thanks, my friend, and see you later. We're on a mission, and we're gonna complete it before the sun rises." He went and climbed into his own plane.

Gaining speed on the sidewalk for take-off, he saw the Rangerwing rise up from the ground vertically. He had still not gotten used to that sight. "Well, what can go wrong when we've got Gadget in the team? I mean, she has built a VTOL aircraft out of parts which aren't even supposed to be parts of something flying."

Geegaw knew which was the right window, and he could even find it in a moonlit night like this, so he led the Rangers. The landing was tough, the window-sill was not really long, but it wasn't the first time he did that, and Beatrice was a lot smaller and lighter than the Screamin' Eagle which he had used the last time. He managed to stop his plane at the end of the window-sill, switched off its single motor, and turned it around by hand.

Now the Rangerwing touched down, its nose oriented towards the building. The flashlight illuminated a cage on the desk right behind the window and a mouse lying on its hard plastic floor and sleeping. She was wearing a white blouse and a pair of blue jeans, and she used what looked like a folded white lab coat as a pillow. Something about her was familiar to Gadget, but she couldn't put a finger on it. Was it the color of her fur? Or the long blond hair, tied up in a ponytail? Gadget couldn't help but stare, almost forgetting to shut the aircraft's motors down. Then the mouse in the cage moved.

Stephanie tried her best to adjust her eyes to the strong light source which had waked her up. What was that? The moon was higher up and much weaker. The occasional fireflies weren't bright enough either. It was rather like a flashlight lying on the window-sill, precisely pointed at her. 'Animal protection activists on a burglary attempt?' she thought. 'Nah... they should know about the guard dogs. And if they didn't, they wouldn't have made it that far.' Suddenly, she noticed some motion out there. Rodents, as she told from the size of the moving shapes. They must have brought the flashlight. But who were they?

"Gadget?" Geegaw shouted. His daughter didn't react. For now she could see the face of that mouse. "Gadget!" It was her own face. "Gadget!!" Was this mouse... her mother?

Geegaw climbed onto the Rangerwing and laid a hand on Gadget's shoulder. "Yes, Gadget. This is your mom. Now turn off the flashlight, she can't stand the brightness, and the moon is shining strongly enough."

For a moment, it was totally dark after the strange light had gone out. Stephanie had to readjust once again before she was able to see who was out there looking at her. She saw two chipmunks, one fly—and three mice; she felt like she had seen them before. She pulled herself against the cage bars to come at least a bit closer to them as she slowly realized from where she remembered them. 'That mouse guy there... can that be Geegaw? After all these years? And the rotund one reminds me of his buddy, what was his name... Monterey Jack, right. And that girl... she looks like me with open hair. Hey, what are they doing now?'

Geegaw motioned to Stephanie to get out of the cage and open the window. But she pointed to the lock on the cage door. "Drat," Geegaw cursed, "she's locked in. And we can't open the window from outside." He pressed his nose against the window-pane into Stephanie's direction. "So close, yet so far away... Why did it have to end this way?"

A tapping on his shoulder distracted him from his sorrows. It was Zipper who offered him a solution. He could fly through the air-conditioning canals into the building and open the window.

"You can do that?"

Zipper nodded.

"And as soon as we're in there," Gadget added, "the lock will be no obstacle anymore. Trust me, Dad."

Chip approved the plan. "Alright, Zipper, go in and open the window. But be careful not to lose your way."

The fly saluted and disappeared into an air duct.

Geegaw didn't quite understand. "You may excuse my astonishment, but I'm not used to your way of working yet."

Monty grinned. "Yer li'l lass 'asn't promised too much, mate. Jes' wait an' see. Ya'll be even more amazed when ya see us in action."

One of the Rangers was in action already now. Zipper soared through the air-conditioning system, trying to figure out where exactly in the building he was by using his sense of orientation and memorizing every bend. He was glad that the system wasn't running, especially when he reached the machinery itself and flew through the fans. At a break-neck speed, he rushed along the path in his mind, from junction to junction, until he reached a grid at the end of a canal. According to his quick calculations, this had to be the correct room. He briefly peeked to the room's window, and to his relief, there was the cage in front of it, and his friends were outside. Knowing that this was the right room, he squeezed himself through the grid.

Both Stephanie and Geegaw watched him grab the window handle and push it with all his might. They watched him in disbelief—until first the handle and then the window started moving. Together with the Rangers, Geegaw stepped into the laboratory and walked towards the cage. He was in the same room as his wife for the first time after 36 years. By his side walked his daughter Gadget. Her last encounter with her mother was just as long ago, but she had been so tiny then that she couldn't even remember it anymore.

"Stephanie..." was all Geegaw was able to say. And he said it with a very soft, almost whispering voice.

"Geegaw," she answered, "is that really you?"

"Yes, my love, it's me." The eyes of the tough aviator and adventurer got a little bit wet. "And this is our daughter, Gadget Beatrice. Remember her?"

"Sure I do. Even if she was a little baby mouse when I saw her the last time. You've baptized her both your and my name?"

Geegaw just nodded. It was nearly too much to take for him to talk with his long-lost wife.

Stephanie smiled at her daughter. "Come here, Gadget. I'd like to have a closer look at you."

Gadget slowly approached her until they were close enough to hold each other's hands.

"It's so incredible," Stephanie said, starting to fight her tears. "You're looking so much like me. And though I've given birth to you more than three and a half decades ago, you're not looking any older than maybe 20. I was right when I supposed that this slow aging may be heritable."

"And Dad was right when he told me that you're a Mouse of NIMH, mom." For the very first time in her life, Gadget had someone to call her mom. "You're looking a third as old as you may be."

Stephanie felt flattered. Among the first words she heard from her daughter was a compliment. "Thank you, Gadget." She sighed. "Now if only anyone could open the lock and get me out of this cage..."

"No problem, mom, I'll get that done in a jiffy." Still holding her mother's hands, Gadget examined the interior of the lock with her tail tip. "That's an easy one." Her tail firmly gripped the mechanics and set them into motion until the lock went open. Geegaw removed it and, still being a gentleman, opened the cage door for Stephanie who picked up her lab coat and left her prison.

"I've got my freedom back," she said, almost in disbelief, but still audibly awestruck.

Geegaw stared into her emerald eyes. "And I've got my Steph back."

She in turn began staring into his eyes. "And I've got my Geegaw back."

While they stared on for a minute, Stephanie laid her hands around Geegaw's neck, and his arms found their places on her back, pulling her nearer. They stood and stared for another few seconds—until they finally kissed.

Gadget watched her parents kiss. She could indeed feel how they had missed and still loved each other. But she felt something else aside of it. She so wanted to have someone to hold and love and kiss, too. A certain someone. She was hardly aware that this certain someone was standing very closely next to her. And Chip felt just the same as he watched Geegaw and Stephanie.

Halfway through the kiss, Chip and Gadget noticed that they were holding hands.

Neither of them remembered taking the other's hand. So they quickly exchanged embarrassed glances and let each other's hand go.

Dale sighed. He watched the kiss, too. And now he wished he had taken Foxglove with him to wrap him in her wings and snuggle up.

Upon the kiss, long-suppressed feelings came up in both Geegaw and Stephanie. Their first great kiss after what seemed forever seamlessly led into a firm hug soaked with many tears. Even Monty was totally awestruck now. He knew his old friend as a rough 'n tough adventurer, a guy as rigid as Ayers Rock and almost as rigid as himself, an expert pilot who kept cool even when flying a rodent-sized airplane through a supercell. And now he saw him cry his heart out in the arms of his wife. For a short moment, he had to think of Désirée, but quickly discarded the thought, and filed her where she belonged—under 'villains'.

"My, my, my, what a heart-rending scene," a voice disturbed them. And disturbing it was, as well as cold and sarcastic. "Too bad it's over now."


	7. Act 2, chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Van Thomas**

Stephanie still had tears in her eyes when she turned her head around and yelled at the suddenly appearing dark-gray mouse in an even darker gray shirt, "Van Thomas! You did have to ruin the happiest moment in my life, didn't you?"

"Oh Steph," the no more so mysterious mouse said, "Steph, you know that you may call me Vincent. Or Vince, whatever you prefer. And imagine how happy I can make you when we've reached our goals."

"I prefer you to call me Mrs. Hackwrench—and to leave me, my family, and their friends in peace now and forever! Or better leave this continent! And one more thing, and I hope this is the last time I have to tell you this: Your goals are not my goals!" She turned to the Rangers to introduce him. "By the way, this is Vincent van Thomas. He's responsible for the Hackwrench family being ripped apart."

"Formerly ripped apart," Geegaw corrected, holding her tight. "The time of separation is over."

"I doubt so... what was your name? Ah, yes, Geegaw." Van Thomas stepped forward to the aviator mouse and gave him a likewise cold and evil glare. "I remember you as a younger mouse, my friend. And even back then, you couldn't do anything to hold your little family together. So what do you think you can do now as a senior, huh?"

"First of all, I'm not your friend. Be careful with what you say, or else I'll become your worst enemy. And then, I can do whatever I want. And you won't stop me. 'Cause I've got something you haven't."

"A ridiculous scarf?"

"Nope. Friends. Consider yourself outnumbered." Geegaw pointed over to the Rangers.

"Your so-called friends are no match for me. Even if they outnumber me, which I don't doubt, I can still outwit any of them easily. Don't forget who's got the brains here."

Now it was Monty's turn. "Lis'n, matey. Me friend's wife's at least as clever as you 'cause she knows better than tearin' mothers outta their families an' makin' 'em parts o' some sinister plot. An' 'er li'l lass is even smarter than 'erself. So, who outwits who 'ere?"

Van Thomas started laughing heavily. When he was able to talk again, he did so. "Excuse me, but I can't take anyone serious who's talking in an outback slang like yours. Do you think you've got a chance against me?"

"I don't mind 'ow much brains ya got. But if ya like ta try yer chances against me muscles, go a'ead. Ya want that woman? Y'ave ta get past me an' me pallies first." Monty made his fingers crack as he clenched his fists. And he noticed that Gadget was missing for some reason.

"You may not know, but sometimes intelligence can replace physical strength. I, for example, have used my intelligence and taught myself a number of martial arts, rendering me capable of defeating opponents of any size, any weight and any strength." Van Thomas went into an appropriate position for an attack. "And this includes you. And when I'm done with you, I'll dispose of this almost pitiful bunch you call your friends."

"Monty," Stephanie screamed, "do you really want to fight him? I've already seen him fight! He's tough, he's witty, and he doesn't mind breaking any rules as long as it's to his advantage!"

"Don't worry, lass, ol' Monty's got everythin'—" The burly Australian mouse was briefly interrupted by his challenger performing a drop-kick on him, however not reaching his goal as Monty grasped his foot in mid-air, whirled him around by his leg, and threw him onto the desk, making him slide some inches. "...everythin' under control."

"You've got nothing under control, not even yourself, let alone me. That was mere luck, besides, this attack wasn't serious yet." Van Thomas jumped back onto his feet and attacked Monty once more, this time ending up with his face colliding with a fist quite over-sized for belonging to a mouse.

"Says someone who fergets ta defend 'imself while attackin'! 'ave ya ever fought a crocodile? Well, yer tryin' ta fight a mouse who's fought a crocodile, 'ow 'bout that? Besides, this attack was serious."

Van Thomas held his hurting muzzle. He would be able to find Monty's weak point as far as fighting went, but he'd pay for that with many more parts of his body aching. No, he preferred a quick and easy victory.

"I'd love to take you apart for that. Literally. Unfortunately, I don't have that much time." He picked up a safety pin, opened it, leapt to Stephanie, and laid the point against her chest. "Alright, Steph. Tell your ex-husband to be and his little friends to hit the road. Or else... you know what I mean."

"You won't kill me, Van Thomas! Who'll help you with your so-called project?"

"I can still pull it off on my own, but it would be far more efficient with an assistant. Apart from that, I regard you as the cherry on the cream which tops my works. Oh, just in case you haven't noticed yet, your cowardly daughter has made off."

"Who's cowardly here?!"

Everyone who had previously watched Van Thomas threaten Stephanie turned around. Gadget had come back from outside, and she had brought some equipment and a fierce glare which she only showed when she was on the edge of going ballistic. And her temper was far from good. She had tied her famous Magno-Ray on her back, she held its remote control in her hands, and her trusty plunger harpoon was leaning against her side.

"Who has to take hostages to make his sinister plan work because he shies away from a good brawl—despite his self-proclaimed martial arts skills?"

Van Thomas finally tried to defend himself, although it was but verbally. "Don't call my plan sinister! It will serve all mousekind! Well, at least those mice who are willing to pay for it."

"The word 'pay' is already sinister enough," Gadget shouted. "We mice never had to pay for anything!"

"They'll have to get used to it. Now let me guess. You want to stop me? With these thingies there?" Van Thomas chuckled. "Have you built them yourself?"

"Yes, yes, and yes!" Gadget switched the Magno-Ray on, but she didn't power it up yet.

"How cute! She's playing with her toys. Now let's see what happens when she finds out that they don't work."

"Wlachally, they do work! With no problems, as I may add. Granted, you, sir," she pointed at him with her free hand, "may well have your problems with them." With these words, she turned up the power and aimed the magnet at Van Thomas. The electro-magnetic field tore at his safety pin. She increased the power even further and managed to pry the pin from Van Thomas' hands, flipped the magnet over, and made the pin land behind her.

"Run, Mom!" she yelled, and her mother used the short moment of Van Thomas' confusion and gave way for her final attack. She lifted up the plunger crossbow and shot.

The plunger flew past right over Van Thomas' head. "Ha, you've missed m..." He was rudely interrupted by the net which the plunger pulled after him and which he was now caught in. The still flying plunger dragged him and the net across the desk until it stuck to a wall.

Chip and Dale reacted promptly and took a spool of thread which they carried to where the gray Mouse of NIMH was trapped. They used the thread to tie him up firmly without even getting him out of the net, so he was almost totally unable to move. After that, Dale poked him and said, "This should teach ya not to mess with the Rescue Rangers!"

The villain had only just been defeated, and Chip and Dale dragged him back to the others when some distant applause and cheering became audible.

Dale asked nervously, "Chip, what's that? Who's that clapping?"

"Sounds like we're not alone," Chip supposed. He, like the others, couldn't see anything on the other side of the room. The moonlight illuminated not much more than the desk below the windows where Stephanie's cage stood.

Said cage's former inhabitant informed Chip about the sources of these sounds. "Well, as you may already have guessed, I'm not the only laboratory animal here. Out there in the dark, at the opposite wall, there are cages with altogether 70 mice in them. It's actually them whom the experiments are performed upon." Stephanie sighed. "Poor fellows. They can just be lucky that NIMH rarely does as heavy experiments with mice as in the late 60s, particularly like the one which changed twelve of us positively. However, every now and then, it happens that a lab mouse suffers severe damages, especially when an experiment fails. Well, the humans wouldn't call it failed, it's actually a term used by only us. The mice have told me it's what they all fear. Fortunately, the humans regard me as a mascot, and about four of them even have a clue how intelligent me and Van Thomas really are which they keep secret. Besides, the humans have recognized me when I was back. They still don't know how I came back, but they know about my past and that I've had my share of experiments, so I'm out of that.

"But while I've been here, I've seen quite a few mice suffer from the aftermath of their latest experiment. It was already hard enough to see most of them die. I've never found out what the humans did with them, but I swear that if I hadn't been locked away, and if they didn't have the guard dogs outside, I'd have carried every single one of them away with my own two hands before any human could have gotten them, and I'd have given them a proper funeral outside.

"One case was even worse. Another experiment went terribly wrong. I've learned enough here to know what exactly went wrong, but it was too late for using that knowledge. The poor guy lay in his cage and screamed in agony for at least three hours. No-one could help him. Not even me, I couldn't get out of my cage. But I guess it was okay that way. Not for him, of course, who suffered from incredible pains until the very end. But for me. I knew that there was only one way to relieve him from his suffering, and if I had been free, another mouse's life would have ended in my very hands."

Gadget walked up to her mother and gave her an understanding look. "You can't stand anyone suffering, can you?"

Stephanie laid an arm around her daughter. "No. It would break my heart."

Gadget smiled and laid her head onto Stephanie's shoulder. "Same here, mom. We're so similar, even though I never got to know you until today." Together, they stared into the direction of the cages. And the eyes of 70 lab mice looked back at them instead of being hidden behind their eyelids in a nightly sleep. It was a situation not quite unlike a stage from which one can hardly see the audience due to the spotlights shining down. The full moon was not as bright, but the laboratory was dark enough.

Chip slowly got impatient. He wasn't keen on spending the whole night in Bethesda. "Okay, everyone, we've solved the case. Let's get outta here and fly back home." The case, that was what he had come for, what all the Rangers had come for—freeing Geegaw's wife. And she was free now. Mission completed.

Dale yawned. "Good idea. Even for me it's bedtime by now."

Most of the group was heading for the planes on the window-sill when they were interrupted by Gadget's voice. "No. This case is far from finished."


	8. Act 2, chapter 7

**Chapter 7: The Great Liberation**

'This is closer to that Spunky case than I'd ever hoped,' Chip realized. He knew what Gadget would want him and the others to do even before she said it.

So she did anyway. "How can we be the Rescue Rangers and leave all these poor mice behind in their cages, maybe even heading for their certain doom?"

Geegaw had rarely ever seen his daughter so ambitious. "Gadget, you're not serious about liberating such a number of lab mice? I mean—that's impossible!"

"I am serious, Daddy. We're the Rescue Rangers, and this is our job. Besides, I've already told you that nothing's impossible."

"You've heard what Captain Stewart has said about the guard dogs," he reminded her. "They'll get anyone who dares walk on that lawn. And we can't fly 70 mice outta here before sunrise."

"Geegaw," he heard Monty say, "I'm surprised that ya wanna give up now. What 'appened ta the adventurer that was me pally? Don't tell me y've grown old."

"I've still got as much power as way back then, Monty," Geegaw defended himself. "But the only way to get past these dogs is knockin' them out!"

"An' exactly that's what we'll do, mate—knock 'em out! Stephanie, do ya know where they are now?"

"As far as I've observed them, two of them are sleeping at the front of the estate, and the other two are sleeping at the back," she explained. "We're about halfway between them."

"Fine," Geegaw said. "When the mice can keep quiet while climbing out and crossing the lawn, the dogs won't recognize them."

Chip didn't like the idea at all. "That's still way too dangerous. We can't just hope that they won't wake up from whatever. Maybe they're able to wake up from the smell of more than six dozen rodents on their lawn. No, we'll have to make sure that they're asleep."

"Or knocked out," Monty insisted.

"And how shall we do that?" Geegaw wondered. He was unable to imagine what harm two mice could do to four dogs of that size and strength.

"Remember 'ow we 'ad those cats chase us through Cat Street over in 'ong Kong?"

"Hmmm..."

"We rode two paper planes. Remember now?"

"Ah, that adventure! Now I remember! I'll never forget how we flew all the way to Kowloon after it. And this time we don't even need paper planes, we have real planes!"

"So, are ya in, mate?"

"Sure I am! Let's go!"

As they headed for the two aircraft on the window-sill, Chip asked them, "Where are you going? And what are you gonna do?"

"We make the world a little less dangerous," Geegaw replied.

Chip sighed as he watched them go and climb aboard their planes. 'I hope so, Geegaw. After all, dealing with these dogs is dangerous enough, judging from what I know about them. I don't want Gadget to lose her father again, and this time for real. And I don't want us to lose you, Monty.'

"Okay," Gadget said, "who's gonna help me with the cages?"

Thanks to her experience, Stephanie, however, was a bit more cautious. "Are you really sure you'll do that, Gadget?"

"What are you afraid of, Mom? This isn't Norton Nimnul's place. There are no robot dogs roaming the lab."

"No robot dogs. A real one. They have a fifth guard dog, and they keep him inside."

"Oh golly, I think he should be asleep at this time of the night."

"Think twice, mousie," a dark voice sounded from behind her, "as long as you still can."

Gadget turned around and walked to the edge of the desk to see who said that. But the sight of a Doberman's fiercely grinning face dimly lit by the moonlight scared her so hard that she lost her balance and fell over the edge.

"Gadget! No!!" Chip yelled and sprinted to the dark abyss which had swallowed the love of his life. "Gadget, say something! Are you okay?"

"Yes," he heard her from far below, "I was lucky. I landed on his paw."

"Well," the dog said, "your luck will stop here. Quite soon."

"You won't do my daughter any harm, Lucifer!" Stephanie shouted, her eyes filling up with tears.

"And who'll keep me from doing that? You? You and which army?"

Chip answered his question. "The Rescue Rangers will! Dale, Stephanie, get the spool, turn it horizontally, and make sure it doesn't roll away. Zipper, bring me the end of the thread. Gadget, I'll have you back up here in no time, don't worry!"

Dale and Stephanie brought the spool which the Rangers had used to tie Van Thomas up and turned it and held it up so it could spin more easily. Zipper pulled the thread off a bit and gave the end to Chip who tied it around his waist. "Alright, make sure I'm not falling too fast," he said before he jumped off the desk. He didn't even consider the possibility that Lucifer could do something to him...

...until the dog's sharp teeth cut the thread, and Chip fell freely from halfway down to the floor.

"It was funny to watch you try to rescue your little friend. But mind you, it was funny as in it is no more. Oh, did I mention that I feel a bit of a hunger?"

Finding that he had made it without any injuries, Chip got up and started searching for Gadget in the dark. "Gadget? Where are you?"

"No need to shout, Chip, I'm right here," a rodent-sized someone said whom Chip bumped into the very same moment. If it hadn't been pitch black dark under the desks where they were now, they would have seen each other blush due to the sudden collision.

"So, what's your plan?" she asked.

"It's simple for now. Run!" He grabbed her hand and started running into the dark. "And make sure you're not hitting anything!"

"Chip," she remarked, "running away from this dog is totally pointless. He's much faster than us, we don't know where we can run, and even if he can't see us, he can still smell us."

"Maybe, but we're gaining a little time to come up with a plan."

Chip and Gadget ran all across the room, back and forth, just to try and evade Lucifer. The darkness didn't make it easier for them, they were actually lucky not to hit any of the desk legs. But their luck didn't last very long. Soon they reached the wall. And this time, there was no way out as they heard the dog's forepaws hit the wall on both sides. They were trapped.

The chipmunk in the fedora hat sighed. "Where's Monty with a pair of trashcan lids when you need him?"

"Why don't we just jump or climb over one of his paws?" Gadget supposed.

"I don't wanna get too close to any of them. What's plan B?"

"No plan B, Chip. Sorry. We can only hope that our friends will help us. Soon."

"Well, I doubt that." It was obvious that Lucifer enjoyed the suffering of the two rodents he had caught. "They won't be able to reach you down here. They'll hardly even find you. I don't believe that anything will come between me and my nightly snack."

Gadget held on tightly to Chip, and he could feel her shiver in fright. She was rarely ever that frightened. He didn't feel a bit better than her. Was it to end this way? Being devoured by a cruel, downright sadistic Doberman named after an archangel who had gone bad? With no chance of being rescued because of the darkness? Has the last time he'd ever see her already been?

And what would become of the Rescue Rangers after they had lost both their leader and their engineer? Chip thought about Sparky at least maintaining Gadget's inventions for the Rangers. Maybe Monty could talk Geegaw into taking over the leadership as well as the pilot's seat most of the time, even if he had known the Rangers for just a few hours by then, and even if he wasn't the youngest anymore. And Gadget's mind-bashingly high IQ could be replaced with her mothers' if necessary. But whatever way the Rangers may try to get along, it would never be the same without Chip and Gadget.

His own name ran through Chip's mind together with Gadget's. This was maybe the last time he'd ever hold her in his arms. And they'll never ever know what they felt for each other. Unless...

"Lucifer..." It was hard for Chip to speak in this situation. "Will you... will you grant us a last wish before..." Besides, it was totally crazy to ask a dog who enjoyed his own cruelty such a question.

"Chip," Gadget wondered, "what are you doing there?"

"C'mon, Gadget, I'm sure there's something you'd like to do before... you know what I mean."

She knew exactly what he meant. But neither of them knew that they had both the same wish. But would it be granted?

"Alright, granted," Lucifer said. "So what are your wishes?"

"You can have yours first, Chip," Gadget whispered.

"Thanks, Gadget." Chip turned towards Gadget's face, even if he couldn't see her. "It's something very personal, Lucifer. There's something I wanted to tell Gadget since..."

"YEOW!" The chipmunk was interrupted by a loud yelping coming from the dog. "What was that? And who was that?" He jumped up onto his forepaws and hit his head under the desk. "Ouch! Aww man..."

He looked behind himself to see where that pain came from. The moonlight still shining upon parts of his body revealed another chipmunk standing on his back and holding a syringe upright. The needle was stuck into his rear end from above.

"Hi doggie!" Dale said and waved. "By the way, the night's for sleepin', not for snackin'."

"What the heck do you think you're doing there?"

"No," Dale corrected him with a smirk, "the question should be what the heck Zipper is doin'."

The blue-green housefly dashed down from the ceiling, pushed the piston down, and pumped the syringe's whole content into the dog's body.

"Okay, what was in that syringe?" Lucifer almost started an attempt at shaking Dale and the instrument off his back, but somehow he was too weak. He suddenly felt so tired as if he hadn't slept for one week straight. "Oh well, I guess I'll ask you again later." He laid down on the floor. "Gonna have a nap now... it's night anyway..." Not even ten seconds later, he snored like a sawmill, impossible to wake up.

Now Chip was able to see his best friend who was still standing on the moonlit spot upon the dog. "Dale! How have you done that?"

"It was Stephanie's idea. She got that syringe and a bottle of some strong tranquilizer, and I helped her fill the syringe. Then I jumped onto the dog with a little help from Zipper who pushed me and the syringe up a bit. And then—I guess you know what happened then."

"Yes, I think I know that. Dale, I thought I'd never see my best friend again!" Chip and Gadget came running to him and gave him hugs, and Zipper joined them.

Gadget gazed up to the desks. "Now if only Monty was here with the Rangerwing to get us up there."

"Speaking of which," Stephanie interjected, "it's such a pity that you can't see what's going on outside."

From the left, Beatrice came flying at break-neck speed, only visible by her LEDs. From the right, the Rangerwing approached, not exactly slow either. The beam from its built-in flashlight hit Beatrice as they headed right for each other. But their motors were inaudible due to the barking of four enraged guard dogs chasing the two aircraft. The distance between the planes became shorter and shorter.

"I hope you know what you're doing there," Stephanie commented what she saw.

A split-second before a seemingly inevitable crash, both pilots pulled back their yokes as hard as they could, and the two planes dashed up into the sky, their bellies almost touching. However, the dogs were unable to react that quickly, let alone discover their fellows in time, and ran into two head-on collisions at full speed. For a moment, they saw a lot more stars than there actually were in the sky.

The two electric planes came back down and flew a few rounds around the dogs to check whether they were properly knocked out. As the current state of the four canids satisfied the pilots, Beatrice performed her landing on the window-sill before the Rangerwing touched down vertically.

Beatrice's left-hand door burst open, and Geegaw jumped out of his plane. "Not bad considering we haven't done that forever, huh, Monty?"

"Crikey, Geegaw, that was one bonzer dogfight!"

Geegaw banged his hand onto Beatrice's wing and laughed himself to tears. "Dogfight! Yes, indeed, that was more of a dogfight than any dogfight before in the history of aviation!"

"I guess at military flight schools they don't teach ya 'ow ta dogfight with actual dogs, right?"

"I don't really want to interrupt you," Stephanie did exactly that, "but Monty, your friends need your help."

"Why? What 'appened ta me pallies?"

"Oh, they're okay, but they need some way to get back from the floor up to the desks."

"What are they doin' on the floor?"

"That's a long story involving a Doberman and a syringe. I'll tell you later."

Monty opened the window a bit further, climbed back into the Rangerwing, and started the two motors once again. "Awright, let's play lift-boy."

Down on the floor, Gadget's sensitive ears picked up a noise in the air. "Do you hear that, too? That buzzing sounds familiar."

Dale proposed, "Maybe it's the Rangerwing, coming to pick us up."

"Yes, now that you mention it, it is the Rangerwing! Well, it's of course just the Rangerwing's engine noise, but the Rangerwing itself is required to produce it. Then again, someone could as well be playing a recording of the Rangerwing's noise back, but who would do that, how, and why? I'm sure I've never seen a microphone come close to it, nor have I ever recorded its noises myself..." Gadget stopped rambling when the Rangerwing put its gears on solid ground and its flashlight beam hit her face. "Golly, is that bright! I should make the intensity adjustable. Maybe install a dimmer or so."

"I'm glad yer fine, mates," Monty shouted. "Now 'op in an' enjoy the flight!"

"Monty," Gadget reminded him as she climbed into the Rangerwing, "remember the mice in the cages. We can't leave until they're all free."

"Don't worry, Gadget luv, I 'aven't fergotten 'em. They would 'ave been our next destination anyway."

The Rangerwing took off again with its stern turned towards the windows. Now that it was illuminated by the flashlight, the Rangers saw the opposite side of the room for the first time. Next to the only door, there were 40 cages on a desk, and around the corner were another 30, all of them in stacks of two. Except the door, the desks surrounded the whole room, so it was possible to walk from the cages to the window. Though they couldn't see them yet, the Rangers could already feel the 70 pairs of eyes locked onto them and hoping for freedom.

Before they landed on the desk next to the long row of cages, Gadget could catch a brief glance at the latches on the cages. They were different from the lock used on her mother's cage. The mice weren't exactly locked away, but they were still unable to open the doors from inside. The latches were mounted far up the doors at a height where a rat could reach, but not a mouse. And even a rat would need much longer arms to access the handle.

"They've learned from the NIMH incident," Gadget mumbled. "And Mom didn't have one of these cages because it wasn't NIMH who wanted her back here. Seems like her old cage was still around..."

Finally, the Rangerwing landed in front of the cages. Monty had directed its spotlight to a free spot on one of the side walls to have a bit of light in the room. After the engines came to a halt, the Rangers got off and went to the end of the long row of cages. The only noise in the room was the guard dog snoring on the floor. Chip was impressed how 70 mice anticipated their liberation in absolute silence. And he was sure that none of them was like Sparky who regarded being a lab rat as his profession. But above all, something told him that this night will go down in rodent history, and so will the Rescue Rangers.

"Gadget," he asked, "will we have any troubles with the latches?"

"No, I don't think so, Chip. When Dale sits on Monty's shoulders, he should be able to open the doors of the lower cages easily. And Zipper can deal with the upper cages."

"Maybe we should open the first two doors as a test."

"Agreed. Monty, Dale, Zipper, you know what to do."

Monty lifted Dale onto his shoulders and carried him to the first latch. Dale found out quickly in which direction to move the handle, moved it and unlocked the door. The mouse in the cage carefully pushed it open—the very first mouse was liberated from his cage. He stepped out to meet his rescuers.

"Folks, I can hardly express how thankful I am that you've gotten me out. You could as well have left with Stephanie."

Chip smiled as he shook hands with the mouse. "Aw, that's just our job."

"Your job... wait, your names remind me of something, but I can't put my finger on it right now. I believe it was in... Philadelphia—no, New York City. I've heard your names before, I think..."

"I'm Chip Maplewood, and these are the Rescue Rangers."

Some murmuring among the other mice started upon hearing the team's name.

"Rescue Rangers, right! The famous law enforcers from Manhattan! You can't imagine what an honor it is to be freed by you guys. Oh, by the way, I'm Geoffrey de Witte, reporter from the Baltimore Nutshell. I've been in here for three years now."

His surname struck Gadget somehow. "Van Thomas, de Witte... How come so many of you have Dutch family names?"

The mouse in the cage above explained, "Many mice in Maryland have Dutch ancestors. There was a giant exodus of mice from the Netherlands in the middle of the 19th century, and they boarded four ships bound for Baltimore." A click, a thumb up from Zipper, and he opened his door and jumped down onto the desk. "Gerald de Witte, archiver from the Baltimore Nutshell. I'm Geoff's brother. We were caught together when Geoff was researching for a story about how the number of analphabets among the mice around here has decreased so much in the last 30 years."

"But I guess I'll rather write a story about our liberation," Geoffrey changed his plans. "And I'd love you all to give us an interview."

"We'd gladly do an interview with you," Chip said, "but not tonight. Can we see you in Baltimore next week?"

"Sure, come by whenever you can. The interview with you guys has the highest priority as far as I'm concerned."

"I promise you we'll be there. Now please go to the windows and wait for us to come," Chip instructed the de Witte brothers. "It's perfectly safe now."

The two mice headed for the windows where Geegaw and Stephanie were standing and watching the Rangers open up cage by cage.

"I can hardly believe what I see, Geegaw. These Rescue Rangers are doing wonders to all these mice."

Geegaw laid his arm around his wife. "The Rescue Rangers are a wonder themselves. And our daughter is a part of it. Gadget, you may not hear me. But I'm proud of you."

A little tear ran down his cheek. It was a tear of joy.


	9. Act 2, chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Leaving The Labs Behind**

Dozens of mice walked or jumped out of their cages. Some had brief chats with the Rangers or hugged one or more of them. However, there was some trouble with one of the mouse girls. From what Geegaw could see, she seemed to suffer from severe pains and was unable to walk. Dale and Monty had to help her out of her cage in the upper row.

"Jenny Jameson..." Stephanie sighed. "If she doesn't see a doc as soon as possible..."

"You know her?" Geegaw asked.

"Not personally. But I've had an eye on her since her experiment. She got an injection with I don't know what."

It took a while until all mice had gathered at the windows. Geoffrey asked Geegaw and Stephanie for an interview, and they agreed at least to come with the Rangers next week.

The Rangers themselves arrived with the last few mice. Chip was carrying Jenny who was moaning weakly. "This... pain..."

"It's alright, Jenny," Chip tried to comfort her, "we'll get you help."

"I guess... that's... why they... call them... experiments..."

"Give her to me, Chip," Stephanie demanded and took Jenny onto her arms. "There's only one place where she'll be treated properly. That's St. Mary's. They have renowned specialists for poisons of all kinds."

"Where is it?" Chip asked. "Somewhere around the corner?"

"Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

"That's not quite around the corner. I hope we can make it in time."

Gadget nodded. "The Rangerwing still has the power booster. It'll gain us some time. I don't know about her degree of poisoning, Tammy may rather be able to judge it, but Mom, when you say it's urgent, I say we should hurry up. First of all, let's get all the mice away from here."

Chip asked the crowd, "Can you jump down from the window-sill?"

"Well," Gerald answered, "it has rained quite a lot the last days, so the ground is muddy, and we won't hurt ourselves. Only the guard dogs may mean trouble."

Monty laughed. "No trouble from the ol' dogs. They'll wake up not before noon, I guess, an' with a bad 'eadache."

"That's what I wanted to hear," Geoffrey said. "C'mon, Gerry and the others, freedom is waiting to embrace us!"

One of the mice remarked, "Y'know, I should read the Nutshell more often when he writes the way he talks." And 69 mice jumped off the window-sill with a remote resemblance to lemmings and ran across the lawn towards the fence.

This was the right time for Chip to say his trademark words. "Now let's get outta here. Hey Gadget, what are you doing there?" He watched the mouse in the overalls write something on a piece of paper with a ball-pen.

"I'm leaving a message behind. I hope it'll keep NIMH from catching another 70 mice."

Chip went and read the message.

_To the NIMH staff._

_We just want you to know that your laboratory mice have been liberated tonight. And we demand you to refrain from catching another set of lab animals for your experiments, for we know what pains they go through. If you do, we will find it out, and nothing will keep us from getting them out as well. And we will render your expensive cages useless next time._

_Some friends of the liberated mice_

"Gadget, are you sure we shall pull this off once more?"

"We don't have to, Chip. Now that we know what NIMH looks like, we can prepare everything from suction cup shoes to tranquilizers for the dogs. I wouldn't even mind them sealing their windows. I'd simply bring my glass cutter. Besides, they'll believe that whoever did this was human."

"The windows..." Chip remembered the last step the Rangers had to take. "Zipper, when we're all outside on the window-sill, can you shut the window? I don't wanna leave any traces or chances for burglars."

Zipper saluted and sat down on the window handle until Chip and Gadget had left the building. Then he shut the window, locked it, and flew back all the way through the air-conditioning. The route was still stuck in his memory.

It was time to leave now. The Rangers entered the Rangerwing first. Monty sat on the copilot's seat and held Van Thomas who was unable to move in the net and all the thread they had wrapped him in. Stephanie carefully handed Jenny to the chipmunks on the back seat before she took her seat next to Geegaw in his plane. The take-off sequence was the same as always—first the Rangerwing to clear the runway, then Beatrice.

The first flight didn't go far. Both aircraft touched down near the RAS field headquarters where Captain Stewart still was on his night shift. Having watched them land through one of the headquarters' windows, he ran outside immediately.

"Wow, you've made it! It's great to see you back here!"

Geegaw got out of his plane. "Yes, and we've brought a present for you. Monty, come and bring the bundle!"

The Australian mouse threw the tied-up one over his shoulder and carried him to Captain Stewart. "This crook 'ere's Vincent van Thomas. He's kidnapped me best friend's wife after chasin' 'er 'round the world."

"And he's the missing Mouse of NIMH," Geegaw added.

"Extremely high intelligence, combined with criminal potential. I take it he's dangerous."

Monty approved. "Ya can bet on that. An' 'e's skilled in martial arts. Take good care o' 'im, will ya?"

"Sure I will," Captain Stewart said with a smile. "Oh, Geegaw, have you got your wife back now?"

"No, we're movin' into the NIMH labs, y'know," Geegaw joked. "Sure I've got her back. Come here, Steph!"

The blond mouse got off the plane. "Nice to meet you, but a certain mouse needs treatment, and she needs it quickly."

"You're right, darling, like always. Okay, let's go. Next stop—Philly. Oh, and Nick, have an eye on NIMH, even if they've got no lab mice anymore, alright?"

"You mean you..."

"No, the Rescue Rangers have. They're all free now."

"Ohmigosh! I shall bow before you, Rescue Rangers. We've been planning a liberation for more than 40 years now, and you've pulled it off within one night and without any preparations. That's almost incredible."

"Incredible but true," one of two mice who had just appeared said. "Geoffrey and Gerald de Witte from the Baltimore Nutshell. We were caught in there, too. May we interview you for our newspaper?"

Captain Stewart gave them an indecisive look for a moment. He was pretty sure that the RAS wouldn't look good in that article, if he let them have an interview or not. "Okay, why not..."

"We must leave now, Nick. Case of emergency. Farewell, my friend!" Geegaw shouted and waved as he went back to Beatrice where his wife was waiting for him.

"An' don't ferget ta tell us when they've got new lab mice," Monty added.

More or less spontaneously, Geegaw decided to change the seating plan a bit. He walked up to his daughter who was still sitting on the Rangerwing's pilot seat. "Gadget, will you grant me a wish tonight?"

"What's it, Daddy?"

"I'd like to fly your plane if you don't mind. It'd make me even prouder of my daughter to be the pilot of her own invention. May I?"

Gadget got up and offered her seat to her father. "Sure, I know that you're a great pilot, so I think you can deal with the Rangerwing." She gave him a brief instruction and showed him where everything was, such as the cruise/hover switch and how to use it. "And this here is the booster. You may use it to get Jenny to Philadelphia, but don't use it on the rest of the way back, it'll wear the batteries out too much."

Geegaw smiled. "Thanks for letting me fly your Rangerwing, Gadget. You know what that means?"

Gadget could only guess. "That means I'll fly your plane?"

"Right! I'm trusting in your skills as a pilot, too. Now go and enjoy the flight."

Before she could get on board, she remembered her meeting with Lucifer. How she and Chip held each other tight and asked for a last wish. She decided to have an influence on the seating plan, too.

"Mom, I think you should have an eye on Jenny while we're flying. Can you switch seats with Chip?"

The chipmunk in the fedora hat was more than delighted when he heard that. He was going to fly back all the way to New York City alone with Gadget in her father's plane. Having Jenny in experienced hands appeared to him as a mere side-effect. Anyway, he was fully unaware that Gadget didn't primarily decide for Jenny's favor either.

He had Dale take up the mouse who was lying on their laps for a moment before when he got up and left his seat for Stephanie. Dale laid Jenny carefully into Stephanie's arms, and an excited Chip took his place next to his adored Gadget.

Father and daughter exchanged a few signs, and while Beatrice rolled back onto the sidewalk to use it as a runway, the Rangerwing rose up into the starry sky the way it always did, a thoughtful Geegaw holding its left-hand bottle cap yoke.

As it stopped and hovered in mid-air, Monty took the chance and asked his friend, "What's goin' through yer noggin, me lad?"

Geegaw looked back at him. "I wish the Screamin' Eagle had been a VTOL craft. Imagine what we could have done." He took his goggles and put them down onto his eyes. "I don't know how fast Gadget's plane will be, but I prefer being on the safe side."

Monty did the same with his goggles. "I do know 'ow fast it'll be." He turned to the passengers in the back. "Ya can be glad that yer not sittin' in the first row. Now floor it, Geegaw, 'ere's someone in need o' professional treatment."

Geegaw switched to cruise mode, pushed the throttles to the stops, and toggled the booster. An immense acceleration kicked in immediately, and Dale had to catch Zipper who had been sitting on Monty's shoulder a split-second earlier. Though Beatrice was far ahead, the Rangerwing caught up and overtook it before NIMH was out of sight.


	10. Act 2, chapter 9

**Chapter 9: The Long Way Back**

From Beatrice's pilot seat, Gadget watched her own creation fly past and away as long as she could. It wasn't very long since Geegaw didn't need the spotlight, and all she could see in the dark was the moonlight reflected by the motors and the batteries, but her eyes followed them until they vanished.

She sighed. "I hope that Jenny will make it in time. I so hope it."

Chip softly laid his left hand on her right forearm. "You can't do anything for her now. But I'm sure she's in good hands. Your father is an excellent pilot, and your mother has certainly spent enough time in that lab to know what she's dealing with."

"You're probably right, Chip." Gadget let the plane climb to an appropriate altitude for traveling back. Then she pulled a lever ahead of the throttle labeled, 'AP'. "Looks like whoever has built this aircraft has given it a simple mechanical autopilot." It was simple, but it worked. Beatrice stayed on both her course and her altitude when Gadget took her hands from the yoke. Chip's hand, still lying on her forearm, slipped into hers with none of the two noticing at first. They held hands, but they weren't aware of it, they were just staring into the night without saying a word.

Minute after minute passed in silence. The only sounds were the wind around the plane and the quiet buzzing of the motor. Chip and Gadget loosened their seat-belts with their free hands and tried to relax a bit which was Gadget's main reason for engaging the autopilot, but the silence grew more and more uncomfortable to them. Thoughts were running through their minds. Similar thoughts. They were both recalling the seconds with Lucifer when they had thought it was the end. How they clung to each other, and what their common last wish was. They both wanted to finally tell each other what they felt one for the other as long as they still could. However, they had no clue that they had this common last wish.

After a while, Gadget couldn't stand it any longer. She had to say something. She saw Chip stare through the windshield. Something was going on in his head. "What are you thinking about, Chip?"

Chip reacted as if he woke up from a trance. "Oh, nothing. Nothing of importance."

"Please tell me."

"I... I thought that with all the lights on the plane, we would be visible for the humans down there."

"Don't worry, they'll think this is a human plane at a much higher altitude. They won't be able to tell a difference." She smiled. "But if you feel safer with the lights out, I can—"

As she tried to move her right hand to the light switch, she noticed that she held Chip's hand. She didn't know why, but she did. And Chip was not a bit less surprised about Gadget's hand moving in his. Though they felt awkward, they didn't loosen the grip. Instead, they slowly turned their heads towards each other. Their eyes met in the weak light coming from the moon and the backlit instruments.

"Chip," Gadget asked with a soft voice, "what would have been your wish?"

"My wish?"

"When we were about to end as Lucifer's midnight snack."

"Ah, that wish." He wasn't sure if he could tell her what he wanted to wish for. But her eyes told him that if there was an opportunity for sharing this secret of his with her, it was now. Still, he was afraid to say it right away. "I tell you when you tell me what your wish would have been."

That was not what Gadget wanted to hear. But she regarded it as inevitable. She was curious about Chip's wish, so it was just fair for him to know hers. But revealing her wish to him meant revealing her very feelings to him. These feelings were strong, and this moonlit chipmunk face looking at her and Chip's hand in hers made them grow stronger with each second, as well as they made her resistance grow weaker.

"My wish..." she started to say, but he didn't listen anymore. It didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore. Nothing but Gadget. He could hardly see the blue in her eyes, yet he was about to drown in it. If her eyes weren't enough to enchant him, the moonlight shining into her hair from behind certainly was.

He was easily enchanted enough when she concealed those blue eyes of hers behind her eyelids, however, her left hand found its way up his right arm and to his shoulder while they slowly moved closer to each other. Letting his emotions take control, he closed his eyes, too, gently tilted his head sideways, and sent his right hand out to hold the breath-takingly beautiful mouse next to him. Closer and closer they came, feeling in their subconsciousnesses that a part of their respective wish was about to come true. They couldn't see each other anymore, but they could already feel each other's warmth in their faces.

All of a sudden, the plane felt like dropping into nowhere. And it was indeed descending rapidly. The first to wake up from the trance was Gadget. "Golly, turbulences!" Her both hands flew from Chip as if they had never been there, the right one disengaged the autopilot while the left one pulled back the yoke to keep a safe distance between the plane and the ground, and to make it climb up again. The abrupt movements of the aircraft tore Chip out of his romantic mood as well. As he wasn't tied up in seat belts, he had to cling to something not to be shaken around too much. His heart was raving now, but not because of the adorable pilot at his side, but because of the ground which had approached much faster than he was prepared for. Now that the plane was climbing again, still at a comparably high speed, he was pressed against his backrest. Seeing nothing ahead but the starry sky had a calming effect on him, though.

Back at a reasonable altitude, remarkably higher than before, Gadget switched the autopilot on again and gave a sigh. Normality was returning into Beatrice's cabin, and both Chip and Gadget started to realize what had almost happened. But none of them referred to the near-crash when their plane lost the air under its wings, but what had happened until immediately before. Exchanging looks, they knew well what was going on in each other's mind. The feelings were still there, but the mood was gone.

"What have we done, Chip?"

The chipmunk tried hard to find the right words. "We were talking about our wishes. Kinda."

"And then?"

"Then... nothing."

"Nothing? That was nothing?"

"No... nothing worth talking about." Both knew that it was worth talking about, but none of them wanted to. At least not now.

"Hm. I guess you're right. I mean... we might just be a bit tired. It was a hard night..." Gadget yawned.

"That was it, certainly... Let's have a little nap. The plane knows its way."

"Well, technically, it doesn't know its way, but it has no choice to fly straight on when the autopilot is engaged. And at this altitude, we'll have enough time to react if there are further turbulences."

"I trust in your words, Gadget." Chip gave her a smile as he took off his fedora hat. "Good night."

She smiled back. "Good night, Chip. I hope we'll wake up before we cross the Canadian border."

Gadget received a last smile from Chip who then laid his hat into his lap and closed his eyes to find some sleep. And just a few minutes later, he drifted away into the land of dreams.

The crew of another rodent-sized aircraft which was soaring through the darkness of the autumn night some miles farther northeast didn't think about sleeping. They were kept awake by the chilly wind blowing around the open Rangerwing and the urgency of getting one of them to professional medical treatment as quickly as possible.

Most of the responsibility was lying in Stephanie's hands. Not only was Jenny lying there, too, but she was the only one aboard the Rangerwing who knew where St. Mary's was, and roughly what had happened to Jenny. She led her husband through the streets and over the roofs of Philadelphia until she spotted a human hospital. "There it is!"

Geegaw shook his head. "Steph, I thought you meant an animal hospital!"

"I did! It's up in the loft."

"The loft? Do the humans never go up there?"

"They can't. All hatches are blocked. Humans rarely keep any important stuff in their lofts, so I think they don't bother."

Being the ace pilot that he was, Geegaw didn't slow down a bit as an open window came within reach. "Do you think they mind me flying in there?"

"No, birds and bats do that, too."

Two sharp bends later, the Rangerwing headed directly for the open window. "But not at such a high speed!" Stephanie yelled.

"Sorry, Gadget, if your plane is not made for landing this way," Geegaw mumbled. "But this is an emergency." He turned the booster off and switched to hover mode immediately. As the aircraft hadn't come to a halt yet, the motors remained in their horizontal position, but reversed their rotation to serve as brakes. Still flying at a break-neck speed, Geegaw let the gears down as he entered the building. Below the window, a long row of tables was put up as a kind of runway for bigger birds on which the Rangerwing touched down and slid almost to the end.

As the buzzing of the two motors went down, Jenny, covered with Stephanie's coat lab, tried to speak again. "Are... are we there?"

Stephanie smiled to soothe the mouse lying in her lap. "Yes, we're there. St. Mary's, Philadelphia, like I've promised." She was actually glad that Jenny was still alive.

Immediately, a group of rodents in white entered this brightly-lit part of the loft and ran up a ramp leading to the runway. The Rangerwing had triggered some alarm system which had called them.

"Stephanie," a mouse in the group shouted, "is it really you?"

"Yes, Dr. Brinckman," she responded to him as he stood up next to the Rangerwing, "your hospital has a reputation beyond the state borders now."

"Well, I would be glad if 10 of Pennsylvania knew it. But few animals know that there's such a thing as an animal hospital 'cause out on the countryside they're still too rare. Steph, it's so nice to see you again!—Oh, I see, today it's not you who's the patient." He looked at Jenny. "What has she got?"

"She has been poisoned in a human research lab with an unknown substance."

"Unknown?"

"The humans don't quite know its properties yet either. That's why they're still performing those tests on us animals."

"Wait, don't tell me you have her from..."

"Oh yes, I've got her from the National Institute for Mental Health. I've been in there for another three years now before Geegaw, my husband," she patted his shoulder, "his daughter and her friend got me out. Me and all the other mice, and among them was Jenny."

While the squirrel at Dr. Brinckman's side ordered the other two mice to get a stretcher and the specialist, Dr. Brinckman and Geegaw shook hands. "I'm pleased to meet you, Geegaw. Your wife has told me a lot about you. Your daughter's not here?"

"No, she's on her way back to New York City in my plane."

"What did you say was her name?"

"Gadget."

"Gadget Hackwrench is your daughter?!"

The squirrel was confused now. "Dr. Brinckman, who is Gadget Hackwrench?" he asked with a slight touch of a Canadian accent.

"Gadget Hackwrench is the pilot and engineer of the Rescue Rangers, a New York-based rescuing and crime-fighting group of four rodents and a fly. Smaller, less professional, but often much more efficient than the RAS." The mouse then turned back to the aircraft. "You may excuse Dr. Dubois, he's just arrived from Toronto three weeks ago. I guess the Rangers aren't as famous up there as they are here in the States."

This was a great honor for the three Rangers aboard the Rangerwing. "Crikey," Monty said, "'ave ya 'eard that, lads? We're famous even 'ere in Philly!"

"Yes," Dale answered, "but we should have a case or two in Canada so they'll get to know us, too."

Zipper reminded him of how he had sent Désirée D'Allure to the cold north of Canada.

"Sorry, Zipper, but that doesn't count. We'll have to go ourselves."

The two mice returned, accompanied by a female chipmunk. She introduced herself while Dale helped get Jenny out of the Rangerwing and onto the stretcher. "Good morning, everyone—and a very early one no less. I'm Dr. Phoebe Maplewood, the expert for poisons of all kinds. What did you say she had been poisoned with?"

"No-one knows," Stephanie explained, "not even the humans who did this to her. It's the result of a failed experiment, so whatever it was, it was still under development."

"That doesn't exactly make it easier," Dr. Maplewood worried, "but me and my team will do our best to find out what this substance was and how to neutralize it."

"So can you promise that she'll be okay?"

"All I can promise is that we'll do what we can."

"Can we help you in any way?"

"Sorry, but I doubt that there's anything you can do now. Just fly home, and we'll tell you when we've been successful... or when not."

"Jes' send the information ta the Rescue Rangers in New York City."

"New York City? Rescue Rangers?"

Monty briefly turned to Dale. "Before we go ta Canada, we 'ave ta solve some cases 'ere, I believe."

Geegaw explained her while he started up the motors, "Ask Dr. Brinckman, he'll tell you about the Rescue Rangers and how to contact them."

"I'll do that, yes." The hospital staff waved the Rangerwing goodbye as it lifted off, did a 180 degrees turn while hovering, and flew out of the window. Even Jenny tried her best to wave, thankful for being rescued from what was to be a painful end.

Dale looked back once more. "Did she say Maplewood?"

"Maybe she's one o' Chipper's relatives," Monty suspected. "Or maybe it's just some weird coincidence. Geegaw, do ya think ya can stay awake 'til New York?"

"I hope so, Monty, I hope so. After all, it was all too exciting for me today. I have my wife back, I have my Gadget back, and I've witnessed the liberation of NIMH's lab mice."

"Aw, don't be so modest, pally. The Rangers wouldn't 'ave 'ad a chance ta get all the mice out without yer 'elp. Talkin' 'bout which, I wonder 'ow Chip an' Gadget are doin'."


	11. Act 2, chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Home Again**

A few hours later and much closer to their common destination, Chip woke up on the passenger's seat of Geegaw's plane. He figured he had managed to fall asleep in the quietness of the flight. He remembered parts of a wonderful dream he had involving Gadget. He was unable to recall the whole dream, but it was enough to make him want even more to finally tell her how he felt.

The next thing he realized was that Gadget was still asleep, and that her head was lying on his shoulder. It was a good sign for him. She had most certainly put it there while sleeping, but nonetheless it was there, and it was there for a reason. But he knew he had to wake her up. New York City was coming closer, and it was her who sat on the side of the plane with the controls necessary for landing. Besides, the clouds which used to be there at the beginning of the night had moved on, and a beautiful sunrise was about to begin over the Atlantic Ocean.

He gently caressed her cheek and whispered, "Gadget! Wake up!"

Waking her up was easy. She opened her eyes, lifted up her head, and saw two amazing sights to her right. One was a marvelous sunrise. And the other one was Chip whom she had dreamt of. Now she was awake, but he was still there. A part of her felt like enjoying the sunrise while snuggling up to Chip once more. Or forgetting the sunrise for some seconds and trying once more to kiss him. But somehow, she couldn't. Something kept her from revealing all her feelings to him. Instead, she prepared for the approach to the Headquarters.

The last few miles passed without any speaking. Chip and Gadget exchanged a glance or a smile every now and then, but they didn't say a word. They were tired, but they were happy about how the case went along, how Gadget had her family back, and how they had been able to enjoy another few hours just with each other. However, both still felt awkward about what had happened immediately before Beatrice dropped into the turbulences, as if someone had caught them in an attempt to express their mutual love.

The plane reached the park, and the Headquarters came into sight. 'Now comes the tough part', Gadget thought. 'I hope our runway is long enough for this plane.' She slowed it down as much as she could, touched down on the very end of the runway, and immediately applied the wheel brakes. She did it well—Beatrice stopped easily before the hangar door.

"Dad will need some place to land," Gadget said as she and Chip got out of the aircraft. "Can you help me push Beatrice back?" She was of course able to do that on her own, but she felt like doing it together with Chip. By now, she was getting used to the plane's name.

"Sure I can." They pushed the plane a bit back, so that the Rangerwing could land in front of the door and get into the hangar to recharge.

Gadget gazed up into the morning sky. "I hope the others are okay. They're not here yet." Lots of thoughts filled her mind. Will Jenny survive, and will she be healed? Did they find the hospital? Or did Geegaw fry the motors on the long journey with the booster on all the time? Or did they even crash for another reason? Has she lost her parents again, this time forever and, to make it even worse, in an aircraft she had invented herself?

Chip noticed the worried expression in Gadget's face. He walked over to her and laid his arm around her. "They will come. I promise you that they will come." He wasn't all sure either, but he trusted in Geegaw's skills as a pilot as well as in the rest of the Rangerwing's crew. That included his old friend Dale who had proved more than useful many times since the Rangers were founded.

The two of them stood at the end of the platform and waited. Standing quite close, they felt each other's warmth in the chilly morning air. Soon, there was something far more interesting to look at than the direction from which the Rangerwing was expected to come, namely each other. Their sleep-deprived minds went down almost to idle, and emotions took control again like they had done on the flight back. Chip couldn't help but stare up into the pair of blue eyes in Gadget's face as it came nearer and nearer until she closed them. Not being distracted that much anymore, the working rest of Chip's mind somehow managed to make his view lock onto an object moving in the morning sky. When he turned his head around to see if this object was what he supposed it to be, Gadget was so close that her nose touched his cheek and she almost gave him a peck.

However, Chip's abrupt change of mind confused her, so she turned her head into the same direction as his to find the reason. And she found it. It was the Rangerwing.

They both felt disturbed. They both wished that their friends would be delayed a little more. But none of them said a word. Again, they didn't want to talk about it. That is, they did want to talk about it, but they didn't dare. By now, they had become fully aware about their mutual feelings. But they refused to accept them until they heard each other say the three certain words. And they agreed that now was not the right time for love confessions. Although they didn't know they agreed.

"It's the Rangerwing, Chip," Gadget almost whispered. The tender mood was not over yet, they were still holding each other more or less tight, and their cheeks were touching while they watched the aircraft approach.

"Yes, it is, Gadget."

"Daddy is still flying it. I hope he enjoys it. After all, he's one of the greatest pilots ever."

"And soon you will see him land it." Chip's words made Gadget so proud that she wanted to kiss him right away. Her own father, the ace pilot, going through the Rangerwing's vertical landing procedure. That would make her early day.

There it was, the Rangerwing, piloted by Geegaw Hackwrench. Chip and Gadget could already hear the noise of the air around the reversed propellers. Soon, they were able to look right into Geegaw's face. He looked back and gave them a smile. As the plane flew over their heads, the motors had moved to their upright position, and they felt the downwash. Geegaw lowered the landing gears and set the aircraft onto the landing platform—carefully as if he was piloting a raw egg. Now Chip and Gadget could see that everyone else on board was sleeping and had not waken up until the motors' buzzing died down. In other words, they had only one witness.

Except Geegaw, everybody aboard the Rangerwing rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and got off. For a moment, Chip stood and watched Gadget run to her father and hug him, then he slowly followed her. Geegaw had seen him and Gadget in their tender moment. They hadn't kissed. They still hadn't kissed. They would still have been kissing under the flying Rangerwing if Chip hadn't noticed it, but they hadn't. Nevertheless, the way they had held each other tight had left no doubt. A good father would be upset in the first place if he saw his daughter in the arms of a guy he barely knew. But why did Geegaw smile when he saw them?

Gadget and Monty led Stephanie into the Headquarters, and Dale and Zipper accompanied them. Geegaw was about to go, too, when Chip stopped him.

"Geegaw, may I ask you something?"

Geegaw closed the door so the others couldn't hear their conversation. "Let me guess. Does it have something to do with you and Gadget?"

"You've seen us, right?"

"And you should have seen me smile. Take it easy, Chip. I don't mind you being together with Gadget." Geegaw put a hand onto Chip's shoulder. "I'd even say that I don't know anyone who I'd rather like to see as the guy at her side than you."

"Geegaw, you must know a million guys out there. And we've met less than a day ago."

"That's true, Chip, but Gadget knows you since I don't know when. And when you make her happy—and I can see that you do make her happy—, it's okay. And as far as I know you, Gadget will be in very good company with you, something I can't say about many boys I've met throughout my life. And I'd like to apologize if I've interrupted your kiss."

Chip's jaw dropped. "What... you've seen..."

"I may not be the youngest anymore, but I've still got the same eagle eyes as when I was young. You can't be a good pilot when you can't see where you're flying and what's happening around you."

"And you don't mind..."

"Of course not, Chip!" Geegaw smiled. "Seeing Gadget stay alone for all her life would be much worse for me. Especially when it leaves two hearts broken. But now that you and Gadget are—"

"We're nothing yet. Nothing but good friends."

"You mean she doesn't know yet..."

"Neither her nor me. I wish I had told her... and she had told me if there was something to tell." He still hadn't defeated his doubts yet.

"Chip. Gadget was about to kiss you. Do you really think she doesn't feel anything for you?"

"No... well, I'd like to hear her say it." 'Despite the fact, yes, the fact that she has tried to kiss me twice in the last few hours. Chip, you're talking romantic non-sense.'

It was then when Chip noticed that Gadget's head had been peeking out of the slightly opened door for some seconds now. "Say what, Chip?"

"Er... say that breakfast's ready."

"Well, Monty's still busy making us some breakfast. Shall I come back and say it when he's done?"

"No, we're coming in in a few minutes anyway, right, Geegaw?"

"Right, Chip."

"Okay," Gadget said with a smile, "we'll wait for you." She went back inside and closed the door.

"Wow, that was one heck of a timing." Chip realized that she would have heard far more private words if she had come just one or two seconds earlier.

"Chip. Sooner or later you'll have to tell her."

"I know, Geegaw. Dale has been telling me just that for sixteen years now."

"You mean you've been in love with her for sixteen years?"

"Eighteen. It was love at first sight when we met for the first time. But I was too busy competing for her with Dale until he met Foxglove."

"Foxglove?"

A bat came flying out of the upper branches of the tree and landed in front of the two guys. "Have I heard you say my name?"

"You have, Foxy. Geegaw, this is Foxglove, Dale's girl-friend. Foxy, this is Geegaw, Gadget's father."

Geegaw carefully shook Foxglove's wing. "I'm pleased to meet you, Foxglove."

"Geegaw? I thought you were dead."

"That's what we all thought 'til yesterday," Chip explained. "But in fact, he was on a secret mission to retrieve his wife. A mission so secret that he even had to make his own daughter believe in his passing."

"And," Foxglove asked Geegaw, "have you been successful?"

"Sure, Stephanie's back, safe and sound," the mouse replied. "Would you like to meet her and have breakfast with us?"

"Oh yes, I'd love to."

Chip was amazed. Geegaw had so gotten used to being with the Rangers that it was him who invited Foxglove to the Rangers' breakfast although he had met her the same minute. "Well, then let's go. The others are waiting."

The moment when Foxglove stepped through the door, she looked around the room to find Dale. She found him sitting on the couch and waiting for breakfast. As they hadn't met the evening before, she was so happy to see him again that she flew through the room right upon him instead of just walking.

Unfortunately, nobody had told Stephanie that the Rangers had a bat as a friend, so she jumped up from her chair and yelled, "Hah! A bat! What's that bat doing in here?"

Geegaw smiled. "Well, Steph, what does it look like what Foxy's doing?"

"Foxy? Well, um... she's... hugging and kissing Dale?"

"Oh, Steph..." Dale tried hard to rise from the couch with Foxglove around him. "This is Foxglove. I hope she hasn't scared you too much. Foxy, this is Stephanie Hackwrench, Gadget's mom. It took Geegaw the last 20 years to find her."

"Aw, how wonderful," Foxglove said as she snuggled up to Dale again, "Gadget has her parents back." She looked her chipmunk into his eyes. "You would search for me forever, too, if I got lost, right, cute stuff?"

Chip stood up in the middle of the room. "Okay, listen, everybody, I've got something to say. Since we've been up and busy almost all night, I say that we'll take today off and have a bit of sleep after breakfast. Alright?"

Foxglove was totally confused. "You're working all night, and now you're gonna sleep during the day? Is it that what I've turned diurnal for, to spend my time with the Rescue Rangers who spontaneously go nocturnal?"


	12. Act 3, chapter 11

**Third Act: The Sister**

* * *

**Chapter 11: Lost And Found, Part 1**

It was around noon when Gadget got up again. Somehow, she didn't feel exhausted enough to sleep that much at daylight, and having her father around her for the first time since twenty years and her mother for the first time since she can think was way too exciting, as were those moments she had had with Chip the night before. Besides, a smell from the kitchen appealed to her appetite.

On her way down, she came past the main room where she saw her parents on the couch. Geegaw seemed like still sleeping. After all, he had the least sleep the previous night, namely none at all. Stephanie, however, had slept in her cage until Geegaw and the Rangers waked her up, and then all the way from Philadelphia back to New York City. So she was awake now.

"Can't sleep, Gadget?" she asked quietly not to wake up her husband.

"No need to whisper, Steph," Geegaw said, "I'm awake. And so is my little girl, as I can see."

"Yes, Dad." Gadget gave her parents a smile. "Aw, it's so great to have you two back. Wlachally, I'll have to get used to having a mother, but it's wonderful anyhow." She sat down on the couch between them. "Finally, the Hackwrench family is reunited."

After she had said this, Geegaw exchanged glances with his wife which didn't stay unnoticed by their daughter. "What's up?"

"Gadget," Stephanie started, "our family isn't wholly reunited yet. There's still someone missing. That is, if she's still alive. I haven't seen her for years."

"What do you mean? I'm here, you're here, Dad is here, that makes us a family, doesn't it? Or do you wanna get my grandmother here?"

"Not your grandmother," Stephanie answered, "neither of them. Your sister."

"My what?"

"Your mother is right, Gadget," Geegaw confirmed her words. "You've got a twin sister. I wonder where she is right now. Steph, you should know it."

"Well, maybe she has never left Hawaii."

Gadget couldn't believe what she heard. "Did you say Hawaii?"

"That's what I said, Gadget. And that's where I saw Lawhiney for the last time."

Lawhiney. This was even more incredible. Gadget had just learned that her Hawaiian look-alike who sent her into potentially lethal tests and who tried to kill her friends, too, was her sister. Her twin sister. Although this explained why they looked almost identical, a part of her refused to accept her as a sibling.

"Is everything okay with you, Gadget? Gadget?"

"Nothing's okay, Mom! Believe it or not, but I know her. And my friends know her, too, though they may wish never to have met her in their life."

Stephanie was relieved to hear that Lawhiney had been seen alive, but confused about Gadget's reaction. "Why, what's up with you and her?"

"Lawah... Lawhiney was on her way to becoming the queen of a native Hawaiian tribe of mice. She had to undergo some tests which most likely would have killed her. I mean, they didn't have a queen then, and I'm sure they had none for a reason. That's when she met us. We were on our vacation, and she talked me into doing these tests. If it weren't for my intelligence and inventiveness, I wouldn't be here now. It was tough even for me."

"My little Lawhiney would do such cruel things?"

"Oh, she would do even crueler things, Mom. When we tried to reveal her evil plans and stop her, she kidnapped my friends, put them into an artificial marshmallow-throwing volcano which was under her control, and she was about to fry them in there. Sorry, Mom and Dad, but your other daughter is evil to the bone."

"Is that true, Gadget?"

"Mom, would I lie to you? Ask the others. Ask Chip, Dale, Monty, and Zipper, and they will all tell you the same."

Slowly, Stephanie began to realize. "Alright, I believe you. And I believe it's my fault. I left her behind all alone when she was a little kid."

Gadget was about to ask her mother how she could abandon both her daughters one by one when Monty came up from the kitchen. "G'mornin', 'ackwrench family! I 'ope yer 'ungry 'cause lunch is ready!"

"That's what I know that scent from," Geegaw said. "It's a recipe from Monty's father."

"Yes, mate, I wondered if that Brie '06 would make a good chowder."

"Well, in that case, I'm hungry, too. C'mon, let's have lunch."

As they got up from the couch, they saw two chipmunks enter the room.

"Is it already lunch time?" Dale wondered. "You can't sleep with that smell in the air."

Chip grinned. "It's still too early for you, huh, Dale? You should have adapted to Foxy's habits instead of the other way round."

"Very funny, Chip."

"Could ya save yer energy fer lunch, lads?" Monty didn't want to go between them again.

"Sorry, Monty," they said in unison, and Dale added, "I go and call Foxy."

He opened the door and saw the bat stand in front of it. "Hi cutie! I wondered how long you'll let me wait here."

"Why haven't you just knocked at the door, Foxy?"

"You'd have opened it to call me anyway. Besides, have you ever tried to knock at a door with a wing?"

Dale grinned. "Now come in, lunch is waiting."

Foxglove had gotten used to the Rangers' cuisine long ago. The very first step was becoming a vegetarian. It didn't feel right for her to go on eating insects when she knew one in person. So she had removed Zipper and all other insects from her menu. But finding a replacement wasn't too hard for her. She liked what the Rangers created in their kitchen, sometimes friends such as Tammy or Bink came and surprised with their cooking skills—Tammy was still younger than Bink was now when she already outdid her own mother—, but when Monty made lunch or dinner, Foxglove believed that he could do more magic than Winifred.

"There's no magic in doin' that, Foxy," Monty said after a marvelous lunch. "I can show ya a few things if ya wanna."

Gadget smiled. "Yes, Monty is as good a teacher as a cook."

"You can believe her," Dale said. "Since Monty gave Gadget some lessons a few years ago, her meals are edible even if you don't like the taste of motor oil."

"Guess why I've been the chef in our family," Geegaw remarked. "Speaking of which, I guess we owe you the story of our family."

Stephanie added, "And I'm sure that even none of us knows the whole story. Come on back to the main room, and we'll tell you."

While everybody went upstairs, Chip said to Stephanie, "Your family history must read like a thriller when someone writes it down."

"You like thrillers?" she asked.

"Oh yes. Mainly detective stories, that's where my passion for private investigation comes from."

Stephanie sighed. "I wish we had had one of those famous detectives to help us."

Geegaw stepped up between the two of them and laid his arms around them. "Well, we had one of the best detectives yesterday. I don't know where we'd be today if Chip and the Rescue Rangers hadn't been there."

Up in the main room, they made themselves comfortable for a long story. Gadget and Stephanie chose two teacup armchairs, Geegaw pulled the pincushion into position in front of the TV, and everyone else sat down on the couch.

Geegaw opened up the storytelling. "Are you all seated? Fine, it's gonna be a long story. Stephanie, I think it's the best when you start with your first time at NIMH."

"Does Gadget know it?"

"No, I've never told her. In fact, she knew nothing about you before she met you yesterday."

"Okay. As most of you should know by now, the story of the Rats of NIMH is true. It happened in the summer of 1968. I was living quite close to it with my family when I heard of what had gone on at the labs, and that 31 rodents managed to escape. And as if it wasn't enough that I was one of the first mice in Maryland who refused to hibernate, I was curious and went to see the labs. I didn't meet any of said rodents, neither mice nor rats, and if I did, I simply wasn't aware of it, but I did meet some of the lab staff. Kinda. Let me put it like this: I spent Christmas 1968 at NIMH. They had caught me to redo the same experiment they had done with those 11 mice and 20 rats. But they had decided to repeat it with only one animal to reduce the chances of another escape. The humans had figured out that the rodents had helped each other, but I was alone. I couldn't help anyone, and no-one was there to help me.

"The injection and the changes in me were painful, and I don't recommend having such an injection, even with the results. Which were an increased intelligence and an extremely slowed-down aging. I had yet to find out about the aging, but I could feel that I was more intelligent than ever before. Unfortunately, I found myself in that laboratory. I would have been able to open the window and escape, but they had these four guard dogs. What should I do with my boosted brains when I was locked away? Well, the humans did a few experiments with me every few days or even weeks. Some of them counted on having raised my IQ, but I played the dumb mouse for them. This was to stay a secret known by the animals only. Of course, they didn't realize a bit that I was only acting. I mean, I was able to outwit most of them.

"I guess they were a bit frustrated, that's why they didn't make me perform some experiments more frequently. I'm sure there had been more experiments to come if I hadn't been given a chance to escape by a certain pilot."

This was Geegaw's cue. "Yup. Spring '69. I was a test pilot for the Ultra-Flite Laboratories. They developed all kinds of aircraft technologies for both commercial and military aviation. A lot of know-how came from them, and, well, it's still a top secret company today like it was back then. The main reason why it was secret was that the humans should never find out that Ultra-Flite was entirely run by rodents.

"I had just been given a new test machine, the Screamin' Eagle. The Ultra-Flite folks wanted to find out how an aircraft behaves when you mount two engines almost in one line. And this one behaved amazingly well, also thanks to the rear engine mounted a bit higher. I'll never forget my first flight in the Eagle. I had lost a very good friend the year before in a plane crash. Jefferson van Zant was a test pilot like me, but a material failure had sealed his fate. And I hadn't come over losing him until I rose up into the sky in this incredible craft.

"So, on that first test flight, my task was to find out its range and see how far I can fly before the batteries wear out. Well, it was hard to believe, but after I was halfway through Pennsylvania, they still weren't worn out significantly. I felt like I was able to fly to Key West and back without recharging. As a matter of fact, these batteries were advanced even to all known kinds of human batteries, and the consumption of the two motors was astonishingly low. I climbed and descended, performed some aerobatics and tested about everything on the plane I could test. That involved a close fly-by at the National Institute of Mental Health.

"And then I saw her. The blond beauty in that laboratory. She sat there in a cage. I felt pity for her, so I landed on the window-sill. And when I had a closer look at her, I felt more than pity."

Stephanie couldn't help but smirk. "Yes, that was fun. I could open both the cage and the window whenever I wanted, but I preferred playing the prisoner when the humans were around. And there were still the dogs. But when I saw that mouse guy with the plane, I knew that he was my ticket to freedom."

Geegaw laughed. "You can't imagine what she did. Well, I couldn't if I hadn't seen it myself. She opened that cage from inside, got out, lifted the cage and pulled a piece of thread out from under it. She had made a lasso out of that thread, and she knew how to use it. I mean, a mouse, a rodent, and one from the East Coast no less, and she can use a lasso! She used it to open the window from inside. She told me her name, Stephanie Wheatfield, and asked me for mine, she gave me a hug, and I gave her a ride home to her parents and her younger sister.

"When I had another closer look at NIMH, I discovered the local RAS headquarters. It was then when I met Nick Stewart for the first time. He said that he was one of the Mice of NIMH, and that they had caught another one, so he was totally amazed when I told him how I had gotten her out."

"I continued my test flight after that. Chesapeake Bay, Delaware, but I couldn't forget her. I had always been free as a bird, especially when I had a test plane to fly, but now I felt like giving up my freedom for that mouse girl. I pondered and pondered and pondered. At some bar in Norfolk, I made my decision. I hardly knew her, but I was sure that I'll never again meet someone like her. I jumped into the Eagle and flew back to Bethesda. Non-stop. At full throttle. And over night. It was 3 am when I touched down in front of her family's dwelling-place, and I took a nap not to be too tired when I meet her again."

"Yes, that was a morning," Stephanie said. "We were having breakfast when Dad asked if anyone knew what that strange airplane is doing out there. I jumped up and ran for the door, and I saw Geegaw sleeping in his Screamin' Eagle." She snickered. "When I waked him up and he saw me, he was almost unable to speak. I've never seen a guy so in love." She sighed. "But I knew too well how he felt, I was attracted to him the same way."

"It was almost too much of an honor for me when she invited me to have a coffee with her and her family," Geegaw went on. "Well, her parents were nice, but you know, Bethesda isn't exactly New York City, and as a New Yorker, I considered it outback. And her parents were just like that. They saw what was happening between us, but they insisted that when we wanted to start something serious, we'd have to be engaged. I mean, I'd met her the day before, and there I was the next day and asking her if she wanted to marry me. That was weird, I tell you, but what was even weirder was how she said yes and hugged and kissed me. That must have been the quickest engagement of two mice in the history of Maryland.

"Well, now that I had a fiancée, I decided to move away from the Big Apple and to travel there mostly for Ultra-Flite, for getting a new test plane or so. I spent a lot of time with Jefferson's son Franklin at that time, he hadn't overcome the loss of his father yet, so I took him with me, and we found a nice place to live in Bethesda. Steph and I married the same summer, Ultra-Flite gave me the Screamin' Eagle as a wedding present since they knew how I liked that plane, and at the wedding party, Frank had nothing better to do than fall for Steph's little sister Suzanne. Steph was 22 back then, but Suzy was 17, so it wasn't quite easy for Frank to date her. It became easier a few months later when she turned 18, and her parents allowed her to get engaged with him. I swore that if I ever had children, I wouldn't be too liberal, but not as weird as Mr. and Mrs. Wheatfield either.

"Speaking of which, in June 1970, Steph gave birth to two cute little mouse girls. They looked one like the other. By the way, Gadget, you're the older one. For some reason, Steph and I hadn't found proper names for the both of them. We had ideas for one, and that was you again, Gadget. Gadget was my idea, I somehow loved the thought of a cute little living gadget that has come to bring joy to my life, but Stephanie had decided for Beatrice."


	13. Act 3, chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Lost And Found, Part 2**

The story was about to get interesting, telling from Geegaw's shifting his position on the pincushion. "Our daughters were just five days old when a stranger came, a mouse in a lab coat, and asked for Stephanie. He said that he came from NIMH to take her back to the labs. Today we know that it was Vincent van Thomas, and that the lab coat was a mere disguise, but back then we had no idea. However, he was someone to take seriously. He gave her 24 hours to pack and go with him. Well, she packed, but so did I, and so did Franklin and Suzanne. And the same night, we all got on board the Screamin' Eagle and left for New York City. I was sure that he wouldn't find us in such a huge city, but Steph had her doubts. She told me that he had seen us leave and whistled for a pigeon so he could follow us.

"I did all I could to trick him. After the take-off, I didn't head for New York. Instead, I flew into a direction which would have taken us to Altoona, and it was in the forests of the Appalachian mountains where I changed our direction to New York.

"I brought Frank and Suzy to Central Park as they wished before I flew to my former dwelling-place in the old Mitchell with Steph and the babies. We had just arrived there when Steph said she has doubts that we've gotten rid of that guy. She said it would be better if we split up for a while and take one daughter each. She'd travel somewhere where he wouldn't be able to find him. It actually broke my heart, but she promised me to come back and to stay in touch with me the best she could. And then she took her things and our younger daughter and caught the next plane to the West. She was sure that he'd never search for her on the Hawaiian islands.

"She was right in one point. Van Thomas did find me in the old bomber. When he started questioning me, I pretended that he forced me to talk, and then I 'confessed' that Stephanie had taken a plane to Maine. So he took the next flight up to chilly New England. I got rid of him, but I had lost one half of my family. To honor my wife, I named my remaining daughter Gadget Beatrice.

"I tried my best to be a good father for her, and let's face it, raising a super-intelligent kid can be very easy. And I wasn't alone with her all the time, Monty was there quite often. She had never called him Uncle Monty or such. Before I had a family, Monty and I had gone on many an adventure, but now that I had Gadget, I was grounded for some years, and Monty had to visit me and her. Monty, Gadget and me started going on some trips again when she had turned seven.

"But one day, Monty got the idea of finding the perfect piece of cheese. It was a perfect opportunity for him and Zipper to travel all around the world, even more than I did with him when I was still free. The last time I saw him was when Gadget was eight.

"And the last time I heard something from my beloved wife was when Gadget was five. Not only was my little girl not old enough yet to go on an adventurous trip with Monty to find out what had happened to Stephanie. But I had a hunch who was the force behind her disappearing. It was that mouse in the lab coat. He had that special something which was frightening even me. No, I wanted some professionals to deal with that. The best I could get.

"So I flew across half the city to the UN building to meet someone from the Rescue Aid Society. They said they knew Stephanie from the message they had received from their Maryland Headquarters a year ago, and they agreed to help me. They telegraphed to their Hawaii Headquarters to find her. Two weeks later, a messenger came with news from the RAS. They had searched the whole of Hawaii, but they hadn't found her. They said that maybe she had been a victim of a storm which hit the islands some months ago. Stephanie, what happened to you?"

Geegaw's wife took over again. "You were right, Geegaw, it was Van Thomas. I've spent five years on the islands. It was wonderful. Lots of sunshine, fun at the beach, it was like paradise. I found a name for my daughter, too—LaWahini. I don't know why, but no-one was able to write or even pronounce it properly, everyone called her Lawhiney, so it stuck with her, and I accepted that name, too."

Gadget's eyes widened. "LaWahini?"

"Yes, why?"

"I had a dream this spring, a very intense and weird one. I dreamed of her, too, and her name was LaWahini in that dream."

"Will you promise to tell me about that dream later, Gadget?"

"Sure, Mom. Now go on with our family story, okay?"

"Okay, Gadget. So, five years later, this mouse guy had found me. I don't know how, but he had found me. He came while Lawhiney was playing on the beach. And with him came a storm. I managed to escape from him, but getting to the beach and taking Lawhiney with me to leave the islands proved difficult in that storm. I ran to the beach where she was, but before I could reach her, a leaf which had been torn off some plant hit me and carried me away. I found out that I could steer it in the air, and I directed it to the airport, but I had no chance to take my little daughter with me. The last daughter I had. I had to leave her behind all alone, and before you, Gadget, told me about your adventure with her, I didn't know if she had survived the storm. So I'm sure she's still alive, now that she's a big girl.

"I flew back to the States on a human aircraft. What followed were years on the run all across the USA. I couldn't stay in one place for long, because that guy always found me somehow. When I was in Philadelphia one day in '82, he used the knowledge he had gathered at NIMH and tried to poison me with a dart. It was mere luck that I got away from him. A pigeon had watched the scene, and when I got unable to run from him, this pigeon picked me up and flew me to St. Mary's, that's why I know some of the staff at that hospital. But even that gave me only a few days. I was still weak when I had to run away again.

"I was totally fed up with my life as a fugeteer, so I searched the city for an RAS contact. My only luck was that the State Headquarters of Pennsylvania were in Philly, but when I told them what was going on, they asked me to stay around for at least a week so that they could organize something for me. I didn't have that week, I had to leave as soon as possible, but the RAS were so huge that they were unable to react more quickly.

It was Geegaw's turn again to continue. "Let alone tell you that they were already looking for you. I think they didn't inform all their Headquarters and branches about you. And even if the RAS folks knew you from the message they had received years ago from NYC, you must have left town too quickly for them. I myself went to the RAS and asked for you several times a year, but all they could tell me was where you were, as in which places you've left before they were able to react."

"Yes, but in fall '86, I was lucky. I was in Chicago again, and the first thing I did was to go the RAS and insist in being brought somewhere where that guy couldn't find me. And they could help me! They hid me, they provided that guy with false hints and sent him to Reno, Nevada, and then the British RAS division took over, and I was brought to New York and then across the Atlantic to London. Top secret. Not even I knew what exactly was to happen. The Brits organized a rendezvous with Geegaw on the isle of Zanzibar where an albatross flew me—that is, we piggybacked on human airplanes most of the time."

"And that was when I got news from the RAS. I had just come back from a flight and connected the Screamin' Eagle to a battery charger when an RAS agent came to me. He said they had news about my wife, top secret stuff, and that he had even waited for a chance to get me while Gadget wasn't around. She was inside in the workshop, so she couldn't even hear us talk. We made an appointment for the next day at the UN building, again top secret. I told Gadget I'm flying to Ultra-Flite when I flew to that meeting the next day.

"They had just completed a plan. They said that after they had brought Stephanie away from this continent, they had started to shade that guy who followed her. He knew who I was and that I was Stephanie's husband, and there were clear signs that he'd go for me to find out where she was. Of course he knew about our daughters as well, but he seemed to find the idea of questioning teenage girl mice idiotic. No, he was after me now. But there was even more. The RAS mice told me it was mere luck that they had gotten Steph out of his reach, and that they didn't want to rely on the same luck once more. So the plan involved making me uninteresting for this guy. And the best way to do so was to stage my killing.

"I didn't like the idea at all because even Gadget shouldn't be involved in the plan and should believe that I'm dead in case that guy would ask her where I was. I asked them why they don't simply capture him, get him out of the way. No, they said, he hadn't done anything that would allow them to do so. Destroying my family and chasing my wife around for 16 years was obviously not enough. He had to actually do something, well, illegal to her, such as abducting her. That was his plan, but he hadn't fulfilled it yet. And since his plan involved furthermore getting her back to NIMH, the RAS admitted that they'd be unable to do anything in that case. So my only choice was to agree to what they had planned.

"I had a jet-powered test plane around that time which was perfect for their goals. It was equipped with several devices for navigation at night, so most of my flights were to take part in the darkness. So that certain day, I told Gadget that I'd be on a nightly test flight over Long Island. That was the very last time I saw her until yesterday. I did fly out to Long Island, but I landed somewhere like the RAS had told me to. They had called for two specialists from Japan, RAS mice, too, who prepared my plane within half an hour and built a radio control into it. A doll looking like me and soaked with gasoline was placed on the pilot's seat. As everything was completed, they flew around with it for a while, but then they let the jet engine catch fire and the plane crash in a spectacular fireball. That was around 3 am, enough time for the local and regional rodent press to put that story into that day's newspapers.

"We hitched a ride on several vehicles to get back to the city, and it was around 7 am when we arrived there. I'm sure you can imagine how sad I was. It was worse than losing my wife and my other daughter. I hadn't only lost what had been left of my family, at least for some time, the RAS had also made Gadget believe that I had died in a plane crash. I still had my doubts about that plan, and I expressed them. But they told me that everything made perfect sense. They wanted me to meet Stephanie on the isle of Zanzibar, a rendezvous arranged by the British RAS division. They tried to buy some time for preparing their actions against that guy, and I could be together with Stephanie and still protected by the RAS as long as necessary.

"So we were back in New York, right in front of the UN building, when I met my old friend Monterey Jack. I mean, I hadn't met him for years, and he could be anywhere in the world, so why did he have to right there right then? The RAS guys were about to panic. I was officially pronounced dead, so no-one outside the RAS was to know that I was still alive in reality. I finally talked them into taking him with me on our mission. Either that, or he'd head for my place to see Gadget and tell her that I was alive, and the whole hassle with the fake plane crash would have been pulled off in vain. Besides, I could need some help on such an adventure from someone who knew me.

"That same morning, Monty and I took an albatross to London via JFK and Heathrow, together with those two American RAS agents. On that flight, I learned from the albatross himself, Orville was his name if I remember correctly, that Albatross Airlines wasn't independent anymore, it had been turned into a subsidiary of the RAS in '77 due to excessive use by two of their field workers, one of them being the RAS global head office's former janitor, and the other one being the former representative of an Eastern Bloc country, both of which had impressed him. It was around then when he had learned that rodents kept themselves out of human politics, and that they never accepted or adopted the ideological Iron Curtain.

"When we arrived in London, it was already evening. Time zones, y'know, London is five hours ahead of us. We met with some British RAS members, and the first thing they told me was that this certain guy had been spotted in New York City. But from what they knew, he had just found out that I was 'dead', and he was busy redoing his plans. What scared me the most was that there was only one target left for him, and that was my little Gadget. And it was impossible for me to travel back and stand by her."

Gadget went visibly pale under her facial fur. "Golly, so the first intruder who triggered my death traps a few days after I'd built them was—Van Thomas?"

"That was him, Gadget. I've been told that some days later. Somehow, he tried to get to you, but he didn't get far, and he went back to his old plans and to finding out where Stephanie was. The RAS said that you had mined our plane, and I couldn't believe it until yesterday when I saw the traps with my own eyes. You must really be working with the best when Monty, Zipper, Chip and Dale have been the only ones ever to get past the traps.

"Anyhow, there we were, Monty and I, in Swinging London. We had no time to go for a swing, though, because we continued our voyage to Zanzibar very soon. The RAS had said we'd meet Stephanie there at the local airport. The plan was for us to piggyback on human planes to get to Eastern Africa, then fly over to Zanzibar. Stephanie would be waiting on board another human plane together with some RAS mice, and that plane was planned to be the first step of our travel back to the States together. Time was scheduled to be very tight."

"And then you didn't come," Stephanie threw in. "What happened?"

"It's not that easy for me to talk about that, to be honest. Well, the albatross had brought us near the airport, but we still had to cross the main building. Well, and there was that cheese bread. I don't know if you've ever witnessed one of Monty's cheese attacks, Steph, but he got one right then. At the worst possible time. He smelled that cheese, and he wanted that cheese. And this time it was none of those cheese attacks where he speeds towards his target. No, it was a floating one which of course takes much more time. I tried to stop him and tell him that there's a plane waiting for us with my wife on board. He wouldn't listen." Monty flashed an apologetic blush and stared at the ground as he heard that.

"I quickly thought about the situation, and I figured that he couldn't do that much damage to my secret mission from Zanzibar when I left him alone, so I let him float and ran outside. I ran and ran towards the plane, ready to jump onto the landing gears and climb aboard that way like the RAS had told us to. But halfway from the door, the plane commenced rolling and headed for the runway. I followed it as fast as I could. I really thought I had a chance when it stopped at the end of the runway, ready for take-off. That darn thing didn't stand still for long enough, no, it started to accelerate, and I went totally insane and ran onto the runway and onto a collision course with the plane. I actually tried to jump onto the gear of the speeding plane from ahead... but I missed it and fell behind the plane which quickly was out of reach. And so was my wife. I lay there on the tarmac and tried to realize what had happened."

By now, Monty felt like saying something. "Cor blimey, Geegaw, me ol' mate. I... I'm sorry fer lettin' meself go an' ruinin' maybe the most important day o' yer life. You've told yer li'l lass ta pass yer beloved plane on to me, an' all I did fer you was spoil what y've struggled fer."

"It's alright, Monty, that's just you. Forgiven."

"No, Geegaw, that's unfergivable. Me cheese attacks 'ave brought the two of us inta too much trouble."

"Monty. I can remember about a dozen times when they actually got us out of trouble. Don't think about that incident too much. It's history, and now that we're all together again, it doesn't matter anymore."

"So that was the reason why you didn't come?" Stephanie asked. "You've played dead for our daughter and traveled around half the world just to miss my plane?"

"Exactly. I've been so disappointed. I got up, already with tears in my eyes, tears of anger. I marched into the airport building where Monty was still munching the cheese he had snagged from that cheese bread, and I yelled at him like I've never yelled at him or at anyone else. And then I went out to the other side, threw myself into the can on the albatross' back, and told him to fly me away from there and back to London. When we arrived there the next day, the RAS folks told me you had gone back to the States on your own."

"Yes, I kinda felt disappointed, too, but it wasn't you who disappointed me but the RAS. So I left them behind. I thought I've made it that far on my own, and I'd still be able to make it. I didn't believe in that RAS idea either, you may know it, the trap they wanted to set for Van Thomas."

"Ah, that one. They said that they couldn't do anything against him as long as he hadn't committed anything or at least tried to, so they wanted to provoke him."

"That was their plan. And I decided that I can do that myself as well, that I just needed some time. Still I hoped that you'd come and help me, now that I knew that you were after me, and that you hadn't forgotten me."

"I was still after you, Stephanie. But the RAS in the States lost any contact to you which told me that you were on the run again. I've spent some days at the global head office in the UN building. I so wanted to go back to Gadget and tell her what was up, but the RAS folks advised me to keep the advantages of being proclaimed dead. It was there where they reported that Van Thomas had tried to get Gadget. I didn't leave the building before they had another hint of where you were."

"I'm sorry for what had happened, Geegaw, but I had to run away again. The RAS had told me what they had made you do, stage your own death in a plane crash and such. So I wanted to see Gadget and maybe take her with me so that we both wouldn't be so alone. I hoped that she'd accept me as her mother, I mean, she was five days old when we lost each other. Besides, I figured I may need some help to get rid of that guy. And guess whom I met when I arrived at the old bomber."

"You were there that day, too?" Gadget could hardly believe what she heard.

"Yes, Gadget, my dear. I was back, but I didn't make it close enough to your old home, because there he was. He had some bruises from I didn't know what but I do know today. But when he saw me, his shattered eagerness was totally restored, and the hunt started anew. I caught a plane which he was unable to reach, but he found out too quickly where it went, and he just caught the next one. Then again, I'm sure that it went out quite well because I lured him away from you that way."

Geegaw took over again. "I'm sure that our little Gadget was able to defend herself for a while, even against a mastermind like him, but I'm not sure for how long. He'd most likely simply have waited for you to leave the plane. Sooner or later you'd have had to. Well, anyway, as you've already said, the hunt went on, but this time I was after you, too. See, Gadget, that was what I've done over the years—try to find your mother and bring her back home. There were even times when I took going to Hawaii and getting my other daughter back to the mainland to be my 'partner in crime', but somehow I've never been able to do that. Either there were no flights to Hawaii, or I was too far away from an airport which provided connections to the islands, or I had another hint of where Stephanie was.

"However, three and a half years ago, the RAS told me that they had lost contact to that Van Thomas guy. And three years ago, I learned from them that they were also unable to find you. So I had to go on without any help, find hints and follow them, you know. Something that's not easy for a mouse in the huge USA, and nobody even said that you still were in the States."

"Three years ago? That was when he caught me."

"He caught you, Steph? How?"

"I was on the run from him on a train somewhere near the East Coast. I had jumped onto it late in the evening, and I decided to have a little nap. Well, he took a faster train, overtook me, and at the next station got onto my train, too. When I woke up, he was there, and I was tied up. Well, I wasn't awake for long, he knocked me out with some tranquilizer, and when I woke up again, I was at the labs. Locked away in that cage. First I believed that he was working for NIMH. But then he told me about his plan, that it was him who had put me into that cage, and that he wouldn't set me free as long as I refused to cooperate with him. I still wonder how you managed to find me without a trace."

"After all," Geegaw explained, "it wasn't much more than a logical conclusion. I traveled around for almost three years, trying to get some sense out of the hints I had gathered. But it took me said three years to come up with the most obvious place by far, namely NIMH. But to get there, and particularly to get to the labs themselves as in past the dogs, I needed an aircraft. I was in Erie around that time, and there was that rat who had dragged a model airplane out of a pond. I helped him rebuild it and modify it so that a rodent could fly it. I asked him if I could have it, and he said that he'd originally retrieved it for himself, but that he'd be proud if I really made it to NIMH and away from there with that thing. Well, it was me who gave it the name and the paint job. I wanted to have at least a little bit of my girl with me, and be it in the colors and the name of my plane.

"So I flew to Bethesda, and there she was. I didn't want to land this time. Not without help, and especially not without our daughter. I met up with Nick once more, and I explained him what I was about to do. He didn't even know that she was back which explained why the RAS hadn't told me earlier where she was. He called me as crazy as always and wished me good luck. Yes, and then I met you folks, I met Gadget for the first time after 20 years, and the rest... well, you know it, most of you have been through it."

Geegaw and Stephanie earned a wave of applause from everyone else. However, Chip had one more question. "Stephanie, one thing is still unclear to me. What exactly did Van Thomas want from you that he went all the way to try and hunt you down for several decades?"

"All in all, it's quite simple, Chip. I'm a Mouse of NIMH. He's a Mouse of NIMH. But he's a rather sinister one. And he had a crazy plan, namely to replicate the substance which had been given to us as an injection. He wanted to produce masses of it and sell, yes, sell it to interested mice who wanted to extend their life, their youth if they still had it, and their IQ."

"Stephanie, rodents don't have to pay for anything. Unless they're crooks, that is."

"That's what I told him, too. But all he said was that they'd have to get used to paying if they requested his so-called help."

"And what was your role in that game?"

"My role? Well, first of all, there was that certain admiration of his for me. Though I'd call it downright sick. And then, maybe he needed me for the more painful parts of his research which he had estimated to take several decades even with someone's help. All the other Mice of NIMH were either dead or RAS agents, and he wasn't keen on dealing with the Rats of NIMH who supposedly have another two mice among them. That's why he chose me, even after my marriage with Geegaw, yes, even after founding a family with two little daughters. See, his mind is as warped and distorted as it's powerful. That's perhaps what makes him so dangerous."

"That's about what Nick had told me back then," Geegaw approved his wife's words. "He had always been a bit, um, evil or crazy, call it what you want. But that injection changed everything for the worse. I guess we can all be lucky that he's in the hands of the RAS now." He stretched himself in the pincushion. "Ah, it's so good to be back in New York City. To have my daughter back. To even have my wife back. But do you know what would make it perfect?"

"When you're thinking the same as I," Stephanie replied, "then I know."

Gadget had a suspicion, too, of what or rather whom her parents were thinking about. "Do you mean..."

"Yes, Gadget," Stephanie said. "It would be perfect if your sister was with us."

That was indeed what she had suspected, but an encounter of that look-alike of hers was very far from what she would refer to as perfect.


	14. Act 3, chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Different Destinations**

"And you really don't want us to come with you?" Chip asked as he and the other male Rangers plus Foxglove were watching Geegaw, Stephanie and Gadget get the Rangerwing ready in the hangar. "I mean, considering who you're gonna meet, you're likely to get into trouble."

"Thanks for your offer, Chip," Gadget answered, "but no. This mission concerns no-one but me and my family." She disconnected the batteries from the charger and inserted them into the Rangerwing's stern. "Besides, I'm not going all alone, and even if I was, I'm pretty sure that I'm experienced enough by now to be able to take on my own sister. No matter how sinister she may be."

"She's right, Chip lad," Monty said. "Y've seen what she's done with Bubbles an' 'is army o' ninjas all alone. An' when Lawhiney 'ad captured us an' she was the last free Ranger, she took 'er chances an' 'er skills an' turned everythin' ta good. Don't worry, they'll make it."

Geegaw had noticed, too, how Chip felt responsible for the welfare of Gadget as well as of her parents. So he suggested, "What about this? We should be back in four days in the morning at the very latest. So if we don't come back that day, you may take it that we're experiencing difficulties and follow us. Deal?"

The aviator mouse stretched out his hand, and Chip shook it. "Deal, Geegaw. You're probably right, I shouldn't worry too much about how an old adventurer like you is getting along with his own daughter. Even if she was five days old when you've seen her for the last time."

"Hey, what can she do after all? Shoot the Rangerwing down with all of us in it?"

Chip didn't want to think about any answers to Geegaw's question. Instead, he went and opened the hangar door. The early evening sun was still lighting up the park, so it would be fairly easy for Gadget and her father to catch the plane westward. Letting his gentleman side show, he offered Gadget a hand to help her climb into the Rangerwing. She didn't need his help, but she accepted it nevertheless. She took his hand like she recently took every chance she could get to touch him. And he could feel it—she didn't put any of her weight onto his limb, she just held his hand.

Although the warmth of Chip's hand in hers made her feel better, she still wasn't in the mood for smiling. She had agreed with her parents to spend another night traveling, this time piggybacking on some human aircraft and heading for Hawaii. Geegaw and Stephanie at the very least wanted to see Lawhiney. However, now that they knew what she had done to the Rangers years ago, they didn't insist in bringing her back to the home which was never really hers except for a few minutes. If Lawhiney took revenge on the Rangers for spoiling her plans, they didn't want it to be their fault.

"Chip," Gadget said, still holding his hand, "I don't have a good feeling about this. How will Lawhiney react when she sees me again? How will meeting her parents affect her? Above all, will we even find her?" She turned her sorrowful eyes to him. "I wish I could find some answers to these questions."

"You'll have a lot of time to think about it during the flight," Chip told her. "But don't worry too much." He wanted to say that everything would come out fine, but he wasn't sure enough about it either. It had been too long since the Rangers had met Lawhiney for the first and so far last time, and judging by that encounter, worrying would be appropriate.

"Step aside, everybody," Geegaw warned, "we're starting the engines."

Chip went to the back of the hangar and joined his fellows before the Rangerwing's two propellers started spinning and the aircraft slightly lifted off the ground and slowly hovered outside. This method was a bit unusual, but Geegaw had insisted in flying the Rangerwing out of the hangar rather than pushing or carrying it. Foxglove held her wings tight to her body to reduce the impact the propwash had on her, and to be safe, she leaned against Dale who stood behind her and watched the newly-reunited family fly away over her shoulder.

The first to stand in the doorway and watch the aircraft head for the airport was Chip. 'Farewell, Gadget,' were his thoughts, and, 'I'm already starting to miss you.' He didn't get any further because Dale interrupted him. "Um, Chip, may I ask you something?"

"Sure," he replied, despite not being so sure, "go ahead."

"Do you happen to know a certain Phoebe Maplewood?"

"Dale, I know Phoebe, and I'm sure I've told you about my sister. Why?"

"We've met her in Philadelphia."

"Wha... where?!" This was the first time that Chip had heard something from his older sister in years. And the last time that he had seen her was in 1984 when she had left home. And now his best friend said that he had met her.

"St. Mary's Hospital."

Monty added an explanation. "See, Chipper, we met yer sister when we got Jenny there. She's a doc now. Doctor Phoebe Maplewood. Specialist fer poisons."

"Yes," Chip stated, "that's so her."

"Whaddaya mean?" Dale wondered.

"Phoebe's not only a year and a half older than I, she's always been superior to me in everything. For instance, I was good at school, but she was better. She had the more intriguing hobbies—as if crime investigations aren't intriguing enough—, and she had a goal, that's why she left our parents for the Northeast Corridor. She wanted to do something in the medicine field. I should have suspected that she wanted to study and get a doctoral level."

Foxglove stepped forward and laid a wing around the chipmunk. "Chip, there's no reason to be jealous. She's a doctor. So what? You're the leader of a crime-fighting team that's second only the Rescue Aid Society."

"I'm not jealous, Foxy. I love her, and she has always loved me."

"Are you sure that you're not jealous?"

"No," Chip insisted. "Granted, when she called me Chipper, it always sounded a bit condescending..."

The bat looked straight into his eyes, searching for a truth that Chip wouldn't admit. She had lured the love confession out of Dale that way.

"Okay, Foxy, yes, I am a bit jealous. But that doesn't mean that I don't wanna see her, now that I know where she is. Dale, Monty, do you think she has night shift again?"

Dale exchanged glances with Monty. "Chip, you're not gonna..."

"Why not, Dale? It's not too late yet to take the Rangerplane and catch a flight to Philadelphia yet." He noticed the looks in his friends' faces which told him they weren't keen on another two night flights. "Hey, it's still better than actually flying the whole distance by ourselves." He went over to the half-airship, half-ornithopter construction to wind it up. "And from what I know about hospitals, I'm pretty sure she's got night shift again, so we'll have to leave by now to meet her."

"Ya really think we should do this, mate?" Monty asked. "We've been up fer most o' last night an' all."

"It'll be easy, Monty. We're not even on a case. We can have some sleep on the flight to Philly, on the flight back, and we won't be back too late in the morning. And if you're still looking for a reason to go, think of Jenny. I'd like to know how she's doing. Convinced, everyone?"

"You got us, Chip." Dale climbed onto the backseat of the Rangerplane and offered Foxglove the place next to him which she accepted gladly.

Monty sat down on the pilot's seat. "I'd better do the pilot part this time. I know where St. Mary's is."

"Agreed." Chip took the last free seat next to Monty. "Now let's hit the road."

"Ya mean 'it the air."

"You know what I mean, Monty."

With its clockwork-powered gears rattling, the Rangerplane walked towards the door which Zipper had opened. He shut it behind the aircraft and joined Monty and Chip in the front row as they took off and headed for the airport.

After some time of flying over the city, the airport buildings appeared at a distance. "All we have to do now," Chip said, "is find out when and from which gate the next flight to Philadelphia departs."

Zipper saluted to Chip's words and flew ahead. Unnoticed by the human passengers, he made it into the airport building and checked the departures for an appropriate flight. It was soon found, so he left the building again and returned to the Rangerplane which was just approaching the airport to tell Monty where to fly, and when that plane was scheduled to leave which was quite soon.

"Thanks, pally!" the rotund mouse replied and directed the Rangerplane to the gate where the gangways had just been removed from the commercial aircraft. A tractor had arrived, too, to push it back.

"Now comes the relaxin' part o' the journey," he announced as he swiftly steered to the gears of the human plane and finally parked the Rangerplane in a place where it could stay safely for the whole flight. "Lean back an' enjoy the ride. Ya'll be waked up in time."

However, sleeping was difficult during the take-off. The noise from the near engines kept the small passengers awake until the gears were up and their hatches were shut. It went dark at that moment, but nobody complained as they all intended to sleep anyway. Zipper rolled himself up on the bottle cap, Monty tried his best to stretch himself a bit on the pilot's seat, and Dale and Foxglove were comfortable snuggling up to each other. Chip was the last one awake. Lots of thoughts were running through his mind again. He had to think of his sister Phoebe whom he hadn't met for ages. Whether he should call her Dr. Phoebe now was the least question he had about her. But how would she react when they met? Would she be at least a little bit impressed when he told her what he was doing with his time? Or will he still be the inferior little brother? The Rescue Rangers didn't exist just for Chip to brag before his sister. But after all that he had done for security, for justice, for freedom, and last but not least for his own friends, he didn't want to be utterly and easily outshone by Phoebe's doctoral level.

He managed to shove his thoughts about his sister aside, but another female occupied the vacant space quickly. Gadget. He was certain that her and her family's flight to Hawaii would be alright, even if it was multiple times as long as his own flight to Philadelphia. But what if something happened to her on the Hawaiian Islands? How would Lawhiney react when she met Gadget again? Maybe she had sworn revenge and would pull it through, no matter if her target was her own twin sister or not. Their father was, apart from being their father, an experienced adventurer who had definitely been through a lot of troubles both with and without Monty. But will he and his wife be enough of a help if Gadget got into trouble caused by Lawhiney?

And when and how should he finally tell her how he felt for her? They had almost kissed. Twice. Within the last 24 hours. That is, it was even less than 24 hours, and just a very few hours between the two near-kisses. Gadget must have been fully aware of what had been about to happen. And she surely had drawn her conclusions from it. Nevertheless, Chip knew that he wouldn't feel any better as long as he hadn't approved the obvious with his own words and gotten the same words back from her.

In between his pondering, he tried several times to do as his friends did and take a nap. But when he started falling asleep, the noise level increased dramatically as the airliner was preparing for its touchdown.


	15. Act 3, chapter 14

**Chapter 14: The Doctor And The Hero**

A strong wind shot into the wheel well the moment that the hatch opened. Luckily, Zipper was awake before it caught him and blew him off the bottle cap. Since he had flown under far worse circumstances in his life, it was no too troublesome flight for him to Monty, the last to still be asleep.

Foxglove woke up at about the same time as the two chipmunks. This was the first time that she piggybacked on a human airplane with one of Gadget's aircraft, so the fact that Monty remained in the land of dreams disquieted her. She grabbed him from behind and shook him. "Monty, wake up, we're there!"

The Aussie mouse opened his eyes, saw Zipper cling to his jacket, and then turned around to Foxglove. "Easy, lass. We can't do anything 'til the jet 'as slowed down on the runway. When we took off now, it'll blow us the balloon off or worse."

From the runway lights dashing by underneath, the five animals in the Rangerplane could tell how high and how fast they still were. The touchdown generated a short hint of burned rubber followed by the constant smell of the brakes decelerating the airliner. When it pulled into a taxiway, Monty decided that it was the right time to start up the Rangerplane again. He released the brakes on the clockwork mechanism, and the strange contraption headed away from the big plane and to where Monty remembered the location of St. Mary's.

Soon, the hospital came into sight. Monty used the same way into the building as Geegaw the night before. He let the Rangerplane touch down on the tables softly, demonstrating the piloting skills of which he had gained more throughout his time with the Rangers than before with his old friend. It didn't take long until Dr. Brinckman appeared with some helpers; however, he sent them back when he saw that there was no case of emergency this time.

"A good late evening," the mouse in the white coat greeted his visitors. "Nice to see you back—well, I don't know all of you. For those who don't know me yet, I'm Dr. Brinckman."

"Good evening, Dr. Brinckman," the chipmunk in the aviator jacked greeted back. "I'm Chip Maplewood, the leader of the Rescue Rangers."

"Right, I've thought something like that. I take it you're here to see how Jenny is doing."

"Yes, that's one of the reasons why we're here. But first of all, is my sister here?"

"Your..." Dr. Brinckman took a moment to think. "Dr. Phoebe Maplewood is your sister?"

"Exactly. Now, can we see her?"

"Well, she should have arrived here some minutes ago. Maybe she's delayed for some reason."

"Or maybe something happened to her. Which way does she usually come, Dr. Brinckman?"

"Along the street that leads past the hospital. She's coming from the north."

"Thanks. Monty, take off, we're gonna look for Phoebe."

Monterey Jack let the Rangerplane lift off again and flew it out through the open window, but not without doubts. "Chipper, how come yer expectin' the worst?"

"I'm not expecting it, I'm taking it into consideration. Imagine that she's in trouble, and no-one helps her, even though her own brother is in town with his friends."

"I understand what ya mean. If I were 'er in that situation an' I found out that me li'l brother coulda 'elped me out but didnt..."

As the Rangerplane reached the street and flew along it, Chip started the observation. "Okay, Monty, Dale, Zipper, you've seen her yesterday, so you know what she's looking like today. Keep your eyes open."

"Don't you think you're overdoin' it?" Dale criticized.

"Dale, what gives you that idea?"

"Well, she could just be a bit late. That may be the reason why she's running."

Chip stood up to have a better overview. "Running? Where?!"

Dale pointed to the other side of the street where a rodent in white was speeding along. "Over there."

Monty took a look into the direction where Dale pointed. "Crikey, Dale, that's 'er, an' someone's after 'er!" He turned the aircraft into her direction, and now Chip could see her, too—and the two squirrels who chased her down the street.

"Phoebe... she is in trouble... Get her, Monty!"

As soon as she was within reach of both the Rangerplane and the two crooks who had closed up dramatically, Monty shot the right-hand plunger foot onto her back and pulled her up. At the same time, Foxglove jumped overboard, flew past underneath the dangling chipmunk, and attacked the two squirrels from ahead, using the darkness to appear far less cute. She grabbed them by the collars of their jackets and dragged them a few feet along the sidewalk before she dropped them again. "Leave her in peace," she yelled, "or else I'll get really angry!"

Dale watched his little bat in amazement. He knew that she could never be angry about anything, but she played it convincingly enough to scare the squirrels away. Meanwhile, Phoebe had been pulled up, and Monty tossed her upwards with the landing gear so that Chip was able to catch her and help her into the Rangerplane. It was too dark for her to recognize him in whose arms and on whose lap she suddenly found herself.

"Wow... thank you, whoever you are."

"Phoebe, it's me, Chipper!"

"Chipper?"

"Your little brother, Charles Maplewood!"

Chasing the two squirrels, the Rangerplane flew past a street lamp which illuminated Chip's face for some seconds.

"Oh my... it is you!" Phoebe gave her brother a welcome hug. "How long has it been, Chipper?"

Chip was too proud of having been part of a unique aerial rescue operation to mind her calling him that name. "An eternity, Phoebe, and then some."

The chipmunk medic took a look around and saw some familiar faces. "Hey, you are the Rescue Rangers! You've been here yesterday, right?"

"That's right," Chip approved. "That is, Dale, Monty and Zipper have been here."

"Dr. Brinckman has told me a lot about you. But what are you doing here, Chipper?"

"Ya can finally be proud o' yer li'l bro," Monty explained, "he's our leader."

"You are... not only one of the Rangers, but you're even the leader?"

"Aw, c'mon, Phoebe," Chip said, "what's that compared with you being a doctor?"

"That's quite a lot, Chipper! See, I'm just an academic spending most of her time in laboratories and with patients. But you, brother, are a hero. I couldn't have flown to Bethesda, broken into NIMH, freed all lab mice and brought one of them here, even if a dozen of our best medics were with me."

Chip felt the need to apologize. "Actually, freeing the lab mice wasn't part of our case. It was just about Stephanie. To be honest, I originally didn't lose a thought on ridding NIMH of their lab mice. It was Gadget's idea, not mine."

"Gadget?"

"Our fifth member. She has built the aircraft you're sitting in. She's probably the most kind-hearted mouse you can find out there." 'Not to forget the prettiest.'

"But you were still involved in rescuing them, or am I wrong?"

Dale defended his friend, "Listen, Phoebe, Chip has risked his life for Gadget and the lab mice. If it wasn't for the rest of us, he and Gadget would have ended as a nightly snack for a Doberman."

"See what I mean, Chip?" Phoebe said. "Getting a doctoral level magna cum laude is one thing, but risking your neck every day in the name of freedom and justice is something else."

"You mean..."

"Chipper, I'm not blind, and I've never been. I've seen clearly how you've hidden your jealousy behind your detective novels. And don't tell me you're not jealous about me being a doctor."

"Well..."

"There's no reason for you to be jealous, little brother. I should rather be jealous about you." She laughed lightly. "I've even started collecting newspaper clippings about you and the Rescue Rangers."

"Um, Phoebe, would you please sit down on the backseat? Looks like the action isn't over yet."

Foxglove had landed in front of the squirrels and forced them to stop. The light from the street light behind her made her appear twice as evil as she normally was cute. Turning around and running into the direction of the hospital again was made impossible by Monty who put the Rangerplane into their way. And before they could run away to the side on which there was no wall, Chip, Dale, Monty and Zipper had left the Rangerplane and blocked that way as well.

"Okay, you scum," Chip shouted, "what did you want from my sister?"

One of the outnumbered squirrels gulped. "She's your..."

"Sister, yes. So, why have you chased her around the city?"

"Be careful with what you say," the other squirrel whispered. "These guys are crime-fighters from New York City. Y'know, the Rescue Rangers."

"No need to whisper," Foxglove said. "I can hear you clearly. And yes, you've just met the Rescue Rangers."

The approval from the bat scared them even more. "What... what are you gonna do with us?"

Chip exchanged a wink with Dale. "We're gonna make you do what you've made my sister do."

Dale stepped up in the middle behind them, grinned mischievously, and spoke one single word. "Boo."

It took the squirrels a second to react, and then they started running. However, they didn't get far. They ran into one of Monty's spread arms each and fell to the floor. "You blinkin' wannabe gangsters ain't goin' nowhere!"

"It's okay, Monty," Chip said, "let them run."

The Australian mouse grabbed them by their tails and hoisted them up to their feet. "Awright, ya two, there ya go. Now 'urry 'ome, lads, ya should've been in bed fer hours."

And so they did. The two squirrels ran as if the Rangers were still after them, and Foxglove and the Rangers earned not little applause and standing ovations from Phoebe, their audience of one.

"Bravissimo! You guys are truly incredible! I could hardly believe what Dr. Brinckman told me, but now I've seen it happen right before me. Thank you so much!"

Chip felt flattered by his sister's enthusiasm. "Aw, that was just a couple of amateur crooks."

"Maybe, but they were after me, and my own brother has rescued me."

"That's just my job, Phoebe. Talking about that, I think we should get you to the hospital now. They're waiting for you."

Everyone got back to their usual seats except for Foxglove who left her seat for Phoebe and sat down on Dale's lap, and Monty piloted the Rangerplane back to St. Mary's.

"Say, Phoebe," Chip asked, "wouldn't you like to move to New York and work for the Rangers? I've had the idea of installing an infirmary at our Headquarters."

"Oh, I'm honored, Chip. But I can't accept your offer. See, I'm a specialist for poisons, and that's what I'm needed for here in Philly. I'm sure that there's some one out there who's rather qualified for that. But I'd love to pay you a visit when I find the time."

"You're always welcome, Phoebe. Just let us know in advance so that we don't happen to be on a case when you're visiting us."

Dr. Brinckman felt relieved when he saw the Rangerplane fly through the window with Phoebe on the backseat and touch down in front of him. "I'm glad you're back, Dr. Maplewood. Is everything alright with you?"

"Yes," she replied, "I've been in a little trouble, but my brother and his Rescue Rangers helped me out of it." She addressed to Chip then. "I take it you'd like to know about Jenny now."

"That's the other reason why we came," he answered. "Can we see her?"

"Unfortunately—no. She's still very weak, and she needs her sleep, but she'll get through. Speaking of which, don't you have any problems with being busy that late at night?"

"Well, it's not as easy for me as it's for Dale. He's a late night movie fan, y'know."

"Yer sister's got a point there, mate," Monty threw in. "There's a 'ammock waitin' fer me in New York City."

Dale yawned. "Yeah, stayin' up late is less fun without TV."

"Looks like your crew gets tired, Chipper." Phoebe smiled. "So let's not take up too much of each other's time, huh?"

"You're right, sister, we'd better leave now. We've taken two days off in a row, I think we should have a look around town later today." Chip got off the Rangerplane for a moment and gave his sister one last hug. "See you soon, Phoebe."

"Very soon, Chip. Have a nice flight home."

Chip got back on board, and the Rangerplane took off. The chipmunk in the white coat stood and waved after her brother until he disappeared from her eyesight.


	16. Act 3, chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Memories Of A Surfer**

Several hours later, but thousands of miles away from the East Coast, the sun rose from the Pacific Ocean. And the only place in the USA where one can see the sun rise from the Pacific Ocean is Hawaii.

A big human airliner landed at the local airport. And out from under it came a rodent-sized VTOL aircraft which immediately headed for the beach and passed by above the heads of two Polynesian rats.

"Have you seen that, dude?"

"Yup. They've mounted the propellers on the wrong side of the wings."

The first rat let some relaxed laughter hear. "The mainlanders have gone lolo."

Not even noticing the natives and their comments, Geegaw—who had just managed to separate the Rangerwing from a jet almost at touchdown speed—directed his daughter's invention along the shoreline.

"You remember where that village was, Gadget?" he asked, though he had no doubts in it.

"Sure I do, Dad," Gadget responded from the seat next to him. "It's close to a resort hotel, not far away from here. Mom, you should know where it is."

Stephanie stared at her surroundings in awe. "I'm pretty sure that there was no hotel near where Lawhiney and I were living." She sighed. "But then again, it's been more than 30 years since I've been here for the last time. The island looks as if they've rebuilt it completely."

"There, there it is," Gadget shouted and pointed at a building ahead of them. "I wonder if they still have that marshmallow volcano."

The Rangerwing descended and flew across the hotel area, allowing its passengers to have a closer look. The artificial volcano was still there, and most certainly, it worked flawlessly now. However, it was out of order so early in the morning. Leaving the volcano behind, the flight continued back to the beach.

"Yes," Stephanie said as she saw the mouse village below, "this is the place. This must be the only place that's still recognizable for me. I wonder if Hubba Hubba is still here."

"Well," Gadget said while her father let the Rangerwing perform a vertical landing on the sand, "when I was here the last time, he was the chief of this village."

Even at that time of the day, most inhabitants of the village were up and busy. But when they saw that certain mouse, they stopped doing whatever they had done just before. They didn't expect her to return, some of them even hoped she'd never come back. But what they didn't know was that this particular mouse was not the one they were thinking of.

Chief Hubba Hubba was in his hut when he heard the noises of the two electric motors, the downwash and his citizens murmuring. He thought he was hearing one certain name among it again and again, either although or because his hearing abilities had decreased while his age had increased. Either way, whatever was going on outside required his presence.

The Hackwrench family was meanwhile taking closer looks at the mice around them. They were hoping that Lawhiney was somewhere among them. But the mouse who looked the least remotely like her was Gadget. And that proved to be a problem where they were when the chubby kupuna approached.

"What's the... wait, what are you doing here? Weren't my words clear when I said, 'Don't dare return to this place?'"

"Good morning, Hubba Hubba," Gadget tried to stay polite. "I'm certain that you've never said anything like this to me."

"Then let me remind you. These were my words when I banned you from my village, Lawhiney! And no, you won't trick us with that disguise."

Gadget felt like she was experiencing a déjà-vu. "Haven't I said that often enough? I am not Lawhiney! My name is Gadget Hackwrench, I'm Lawhiney's sister, these are our parents, and we're here to find her."

"Gadget..." Hubba Hubba started remembering the details of what forced him to get rid of the evil mouse girl. "Yes, I remember. You were that Lawhiney look-alike. I'm sorry if I confused you again."

"So, do you know where she is?"

"Maybe I can help you." Shaka Baka had made his way through the crowd with a surfboard tucked under his arm. He had wanted to do a little test ride, but when he saw what was happening, he decided otherwise.

"Good morning, Shaka! Mom, Dad, this is Shaka Baka," Gadget explained as she jumped out of the Rangerwing. "He used to be Lawhiney's boyfriend."

Geegaw followed his daughter and introduced himself. "Aloha! I'm Geegaw Hackwrench, Gadget's and Lawhiney's father," he said and shook Shaka's hand, "and this is my wife Stephanie."

"No need to introduce me to him, Geegaw, we know each other." Stephanie was the last to meet him. "Shaka, good grief, you've so grown since back then!"

"Um, have I?"

"Sure you have. You were six years old when I saw you the last time." She smiled about a memory which came back to her mind. "I can still remember how my little Lawhiney watched you when you were out there surfing. You were the best surfer kid I've ever seen."

"Thanks, Stephanie. But when I was six, I didn't like girls at all. All I needed to have fun was my surfboard. C'mon, we're going to my place."

Gadget, Geegaw and Stephanie followed the moke-shaped mouse. "Looks like that has changed with the years," Stephanie said.

"Yes, I guess I started to think differently about her a few years later." Shaka smiled as he held the door to his home open. "Come in, my hale is your hale."

"Well, hale is quite a bit of understatement," Geegaw figured, taking a look around. Shaka Baka had one of the biggest huts in the village. His dwelling-place was his working-place at the same time. Pieces of multiplex wood were lying around together with some tools. They were in states from freshly cut out of the discarded human surfboard hidden behind Shaka's hut to ready-to-run surfboards. When he couldn't turn something into a surfboard, he had carved some Tiki-style art from it.

"When Lawhiney was sent into prison, I had more time for myself. And I found out how great making surfboards is, about as great as surfing. So when we had surf, I was out on the waves, and when we had none, I was here working on my surfboards. They're using my boards all over the islands, and some tourists from the mainland have even taken some of them with them. As if they had no surfboards over there."

"That's interesting and all," Gadget said, "but what happened to Lawhiney after our vacation was over?"

"Oh, sorry, I forgot what you're here for. Okay, so Lawhiney spent eight years in our prison for trying to kill your friends and for using you to become queen. When these eight years were over, Hubba Hubba decided that she couldn't stay here, so he banned her."

"When she's not here anymore, where can we find her then?"

"I don't know it exactly, but she may still live in that hut on the side of the volcano." Shaka pointed towards the inland.

"The volcano, as you say, is quite large," Geegaw said. "Can't you tell us something more precise?"

"Just fly mauka from here, and it'll be easy to find her."

"We'll try that. Mahalo, Shaka."

"You're welcome, dude." Shaka led his guests to the door. "And good luck!"

Gadget and her parents left Shaka's place, and she couldn't help but stare at her father. "Daddy," she asked, "how come you know all these Hawaiian expressions?"

"I've been here several times before on test flights before you were born," he answered. "Actually, today was the first time that I didn't fly all the way myself."

"You haven't been here when you were searching for Mom?"

"No, that would've meant losing the trail. I've thought about getting here and looking after my other daughter, but I've always been busy going after hints and such." He sat down on the pilot's seat again, and his wife and daughter joined him. "Now let's see if that muscle mouse was right."

The Rangerwing dashed across the island towards the volcano ahead of it, and its passengers examined the land as well as they could. Soon they were above a purely volcanic landscape.

Geegaw let the aircraft fly a bit lower. "It has to be somewhere here according to Shaka's description."

"Look there, Geegaw," Stephanie wondered, "what can that be?"

In a field of smooth, cushion-like lava, so-called pahoehoe, appeared a structure made largely of wood, but towards the crater it rather consisted of solid lava. And it gave no abandoned impression.

"Do you think that's her hut?"

Geegaw prepared for landing the Rangerwing. "I'm sure that no-one would live up here voluntarily. Let's see if she's in."

As the Rangerwing touched down, the inhabitant of this unusual building pulled the curtain aside which served as a door replacement. Something was outside that didn't sound to her like the usual wind or the occasional birds. And then she saw what caused that noise, and who was on board of that strange aircraft.

All she could pronounce at first was one single word of disbelief. "No."


	17. Act 3, chapter 16

**Chapter 16: So Similar And Yet So Different**

Lawhiney didn't know anything more to say when she saw the three mice get off that weird aircraft. And neither did them.

Gadget still regarded her as her evil twin with emphasis on evil. She had always tried to be kind to everyone, but this mouse didn't deserve any kindness in her opinion.

Stephanie was amazed to see how her little girl had grown. But she knew that she'd have to explain why she had left her on that stormy day without saying a word.

Geegaw was fully aware of the fact that Lawhiney didn't know for sure who he was. And as he had seen her for the last time when she was a few days old, he had no idea of if she would take meeting her father for the first time in her life as easy as Gadget took meeting her mother a few days ago.

And Lawhiney tried hard to figure out who these mice were, and why they had come. The one in the overalls—she started to remember her, and what she had done to her that sent her to jail and then away from the village. What did she want now, almost 18 years after that incident? The one in the white shirt and jeans who had a slight resemblance to her, too—Lawhiney remembered that her mother used to look like this mouse. But if that was her mother, she'd be much older by now. Besides, she had lost all of her belief in her mother ever coming back. And the one in the aviator's attire—she had no clue who that could be.

So it was her who broke the silence. "Are you who I think you are?"

"That depends on what you think who we are, Lawhiney," Gadget replied with a slightly enraged tone.

"You know my name?" Lawhiney hadn't counted on her speculations being proved that quickly. "So you are..."

"Gadget. You tried to use me for being crowned queen but not injured during the ceremony when we were about half as old as we're now. Remember?"

"Gadget... how could I forget that? It's what brought me into this uncomfortable situation. I've lost my reputation, I've lost my Shaka Baka, and frankly, there's not that much left of a life for me."

"I think I begin to understand why they call you Lawhiney. Stop whining about what's your own fault."

"Please, Gadget, don't tear these old wounds open again."

"She's right," Stephanie threw in. "They seem to have punished my little girl for more than she did."

"Your little girl?" Lawhiney wondered. "Okay, who are you, and who do you wanna make me believe you are?"

Stephanie stretched her hands out. "Come here, Lawhiney. Look into my eyes, and then say yourself who I am."

The mouse in the Hawaiian dress slowly came closer. "You remind me of my mother. That is, I haven't seen her for more than three decades now, so my memory may be a bit..." Then they stood right in front of each other. "...faded..." She saw it. She couldn't believe it as there was no proof for it, but she saw it. "Mom?"

"Yes, Lawhiney. It's me."

"Mom..."

Lawhiney didn't move a bit until Stephanie carefully took her into her arms. She felt her mother's warmth and gentleness and something more that showed all signs of being forgivingness, as if her mother knew but didn't mind what she had done back then. No-one had been so kind to her forever, kinder than she deserved. Judging by what she was used to, it felt wrong. But it felt wonderful.

A tear ran down her cheek. And another one. Many more followed as she clutched and hugged her mother firmly and let all her pain and grieves and disappointment about herself flow.

Gadget had expected a lot, and that lot included ending up in a real volcano together with her parents and Lawhiney standing on the edge of the crater and laughing maniacally. But nothing of what she had expected came close to what she witnessed now. This was either another trick—or a Lawhiney she didn't know. She went for the latter when she watched Geegaw lay his arm around her twin sister and try to comfort her. These tears were real. They were flushing her antipathy for her sister away. Yes, she began to feel pity, no matter what this look-alike of hers had done in the past. She herself was no angel either; she remembered the potentially lethal traps which she had installed in her place. But she wondered what had driven Lawhiney to do what she had done.

After a while, Lawhiney quit sobbing and lifted her face up from her mother's shoulder. She still didn't know why Gadget had come, too, and who that mouse guy was. She stared at her mother, her eyes being reddish and still a little wet, and tried to find an answer. "Mom, what's going on here? Why have you returned?"

Stephanie explained the reason for their visit. "We wanted to see you, Lawhiney. We wanted to reunite our family for the first time in 36 years."

"Family? You mean..."

"Take a look at Gadget. What do you think why she's looking just like you?"

"Well, we could indeed be sisters."

"You are sisters. Twins, to be more precise. Gadget is only a few minutes older than you."

Lawhiney motioned towards the aviator mouse at her side. "And he is..."

"Geegaw Hackwrench, your father."

Geegaw ran his hand through his daughter's hair and smiled.. "Aloha, Lawhiney... my little girl."

"Hi, Dad..." Lawhiney couldn't hide her disbelief. She was still not used to having a family, let alone having her entire family around her. Although she was sure that she had a great father. "I think there's a lot that needs to be explained now. Come on into my hut." She went ahead, and the rest of her family followed.

Inside, Lawhiney's hut wasn't much more than a shelter from nasty weather. She had managed to take most of the stuff she had down in the village with her. But the furniture—or the near-lack thereof—showed that she didn't expect any visitors. And now she had some. While she sat down on the only stool in the hut, her sister and her parents had to take her bed instead.

"First of all, I've got a question for you, Mom."

"You'd like to know why I've left you."

"That too, but for now, I'd like to know why I have this strange name."

"Actually, I wanted to name you LaWahini. But everyone in the village got your name wrong and called you Lawhiney. So instead of teaching a whole village what your name is, I chose the easier way and stuck with that kind of nickname."

Lawhiney rolled her eyes. "Yes, that so sounds like these imbeciles down there. They even get a name wrong that's based on their own language."

"Imbeciles? Granted, they're not as bright minds as us, but... well, I think you should tell us about what happened to you, so we may understand your judging."

"Alright. I was five years old when there was that storm, you know, when you disappeared to I don't know where."

Stephanie briefly interrupted her daughter. "I'll tell you later why I left you. It's a very long story."

"I understand. So there I was in that storm, looking for shelter and finally being brought by Hubba Hubba into his hut. He did know that it was far too dangerous for a little girl like me to run around outside all alone in that kind of weather. But when the storm was over and we went outside, and we couldn't find you, nobody felt responsible for taking care of me. Sure, they gave me to eat when I visited them, and they gave me shelter when a storm came, but I had to raise myself. I don't wanna think about what I've missed.

"To be honest, while all the tourists refer to Hawaii as paradise, I'd rather call it boredom. Even when I was that young, I noticed that I was more intelligent than anyone else all over the village. But I couldn't do anything with my brains. There were actually only two things I've enjoyed. One was surfing, and the other one was Shaka Baka. I've watched him ride the waves since some months before that storm and some time after it. Yes, it did take some time for him to realize that girls weren't as silly as little boys believed, and that was when I asked him to teach me to surf.

"So first he was my little surfing teacher, then we became friends, and then we grew older, and I understood why I liked him so much and what that meant. But it was after we became a couple that I found out what sort of guy I had fallen in love with. After all, all that made him special was that he was big, muscular, and somehow handsome, but when it came to brains, he wasn't a bit cleverer than anyone else in the village.

"To have at least a bit use for my IQ, I started to learn what I could about the history and the traditions of this village. I found out that it was quite old, that many generations of mice have lived there, and that they used to have a queen. Well, at that time, they had none, they simply had a chief instead, but from my studies I knew what to do to be crowned the queen of that village. First I just thought that it'd be the best for all to be ruled by someone with brains. But then the evil got hold of me. I think I wanted to punish them all for being so dumb and living for nothing but sun, fun and surf. They didn't deserve any better in my opinion. And they'd probably not even realize what would be happening to them, so it would be easy to do."

Lawhiney glanced over to Gadget. "And that's where you entered the game. There was still something I couldn't deal with, and that was the three trials. They were actually the reason why the village hadn't had a queen for many years—they simply didn't survive that procedure. I knew that I couldn't reign over the village when I was dead. But then I met you. I watched you walk over that lake on those thingies, and I recognized how similar we looked."

"So you made me take your place at the trials and took my place among my friends. And when they found out what you were playing, you tried to kill them in that artificial volcano."

"I guess I was in that plot too deep. Something kept me from quitting when it got too much. I didn't know why I did all that, I had forgotten why I originally wanted to be queen, and I didn't mind at all anymore. All I wanted was power, and that included getting rid of everyone who was standing in my way, one way or the other." Lawhiney made a little pause here. "When I woke up from my frenzy, I was in prison. I slowly realized what I had done. I had wanted the best for the mice in the village. But the prospect of power had begun to make an evil overlord out of me. I came to two conclusions, one of them being that stopping me before it was too late was the best the Rescue Rangers could do, and the other one being that all the mice down there already had everything they could wish for. I could have given them so much if I had kept up my original intentions, but I wasn't sure anymore if they'd have accepted it."

Lawhiney got up from her stool and walked up to her sister. "Look at me, Gadget. What do you see?"

"Um... what do I see? You haven't changed that much since then. The flower in your hair is gone, so is your make-up, and your dress is torn and worn. But you've still got the looks of a beautiful young mouse woman."

"Yes, that's the next thing that got me into trouble," Lawhiney continued as she sat down again. "Eight years later. It wasn't before they let me out of jail that they noticed that I hadn't aged a bit since that incident. I still don't know why, but they thought they knew. Hubba Hubba said something about witchcraft and dug up some old Hawaiian mouse myths. The village—that is, everyone but Shaka Baka—decided that they didn't want a witch among them, and they banned me to be safe. Well, Shaka had at least enough brains not to want me to stay. If he hadn't abstained, they'd have thrown him out of the village, too, and he'd have been unable to fulfill his dream, namely to become the famous surfboard manufacturer that he is today.

"Before I left, Hubba Hubba told me not to try to move to another mouse village. He said that the word that I'm a witch was carried all over the island by the birds. The only place I could live, he said, was up this volcano on a pahoehoe field. I still wonder if he sent me to an erupting volcano intentionally because there was actually an eruption going on that day. I packed my stuff and wandered all the way to the volcano where I stood and watched the lava run down the mountain. I found out that way where I could live without being endangered by future lava flows, even if that volcano doesn't erupt that frequently. I laid down my belongings when the eruption had ended and built myself a hut up the hill. This heap of lava that's the rear wall should protect me in case of another eruption. But the volcano has been quiet for years now.

"That was my story," Lawhiney ended her tale.

"I guess that's my cue now," Stephanie said. "I should tell you now why I've left you."

"You can still tell me on the flight."

"Flight?" Geegaw wondered. "What do you mean with flight?"

"Dad, Mom, Gadget—please bring me away from here!"

"That's pointless, Lawhiney," her father remarked. "They won't let you live in any village here—not only on this island. You've said yourself that the birds have spread the word, and birds don't let themselves be stopped by water, they just fly over it."

"I don't just wanna leave the island, Dad," she said and grabbed the collar of his jacket. "Get me away from Hawaii. Please. I can't stand living here anymore. Neither all alone up here nor with these stupid hang-loose mice."

"Lawhiney has a point there, Geegaw," Stephanie approved her daughter's words. "She's not born to live here. Why don't we take her back to New York City with us?"

"Please don't wait too long with your decision," Lawhiney added. Her face showed her concerns about something.

Geegaw found that kind of hurry quite strange. "Why not?"

Inaudible for humans but not for mice, a quiet rumble went through the air, and the ground shook slightly.


	18. Act 3, chapter 17

**Chapter 17: From The Heat To The Cold To The Warmth**

The low-frequent vibrations of both ground and air alarmed Gadget. "Have you heard that? What was it?"

"I've heard it, Gadget," Lawhiney answered. "There's an eruption coming up. To be honest, I believe it's due again."

That was what Gadget expected, but not what she wanted to hear. "Are you sure?"

"Listen, sister. I may not be the experienced engineer that you are. But when there's something I've gathered some knowledge about, it's volcanism. I've sneaked into human public libraries when they were closed and read all I could about volcanoes, and believe me, there's quite much to find about them when you live near one. Besides, I've spent about ten years of my life on a volcano and witnessed two eruptions of that particular one. So—yes, I'm sure."

The mouse from the island saw panic in the rest of her family's faces. "I hope you've made your decision now. I'm not sure if my hut will withstand this eruption again, but I can tell you that your aircraft may well be drowned in the lava where it's standing now. This does not sound and feel like a weak eruption. You'd better not wait too long with leaving."

Geegaw gave Stephanie and Gadget a glance. "What shall we do with her? We can't stay and discuss this forever."

"I don't want to leave her behind again," Stephanie said. "Especially not now. Who knows if she'll survive this eruption when she stays here?"

Gadget, however, wasn't so sure. On the one hand, she couldn't predict what Lawhiney would do when she was in New York City and meeting the other Rangers. And how they would react. And if Lawhiney could cope with the chilly East Coast autumn, having experienced nothing but summer so far. On the other hand, the volcano threatened to kill her. Kill her... She had been evil, but she had already been punished more than enough for that. Gadget looked into the begging eyes of her sister. No, she didn't deserve a painful death being buried in molten rock.

The rumbling made Gadget's decision even easier. "Lawhiney, gather the stuff you want to take with you, and get on board. We're leaving."

Geegaw and Stephanie exchanged smiles. Her daughter had overcome her hatred for her sister, or at least so it seemed. She even helped her pack, and soon the four mice carried Lawhiney's remaining belongings to the Rangerwing, loaded them into the free space around the batteries, and secured them. Geegaw was about to climb onto the pilot's seat, but Gadget was quicker. "You've flown enough for now, Dad. From Philadelphia to New York City to here. Sit down in the backseat and relax. Lawhiney, come sit with me in the front row."

Lawhiney's smile was honest. She had hoped that Gadget would forgive her, but she had never expected such an invitation. "What have I done to deserve this, Gadget?"

"Am I not allowed to be nice to my sister?" Gadget replied with a counter question as if she had never mistrusted Lawhiney.

When the Rangerwing lifted off with everyone and everything on board, the noises from the volcano were growing strong enough for humans in the vicinity to notice. But no-one dared look back and see if the lava had started its way down and what it did with Lawhiney's hut.

"Gadget," Lawhiney asked shyly, "can you do me a favor?"

"What shall it be?"

"I'd like you to land near the village where I've lived, go to the village, and ask Shaka Baka to come. I want to say good-bye to him, now that I'm leaving Hawaii."

"Sure I can do that, we've still got enough time before our airliner leaves. But I don't understand why."

Lawhiney explained, "Granted, he's a bit of a dimwit, and he hasn't visited me one single time. But..." she sighed, "a part of me deep inside still loves him."

Gadget got goosebumps under her fur when Lawhiney mentioned love. And she knew just too well why. "Alright, I'll do that."

A few minutes later, Shaka Baka was finishing the painting on another board when he heard someone outside call his name. Normally, he didn't like to be disturbed when he was working on his boards, but given the recent circumstances, he thought that it may have to do with the volcano. This wasn't his first eruption, and yet he still didn't know that the volcano was so far away that it could hardly do anyone in the village any harm. Nevertheless, he went outside and saw Gadget standing in front of his hut.

"What are you doing here?"

"Shaka Baka, please come with me. There's someone waiting for you outside the village."

"Who is that?" Shaka really didn't have any suspicion.

"Lawhiney. She said she wanted to see you one last time before she comes with us."

"Okay, I'm comin'."

While he was walking to the edge of the village, Shaka started wondering about three words Gadget had said. "Um, did you just say, 'one last time?'"

"That's what I said. Lawhiney is leaving Hawaii. She's gonna live with us in New York City. And since she's banned from the village and tired of the islands, it's very unlikely that she'll ever come back."

Shaka Baka swallowed hard. It had been bad enough that his love had to leave the village. After all, his girlfriend was the prettiest mouse he had ever met. But now, she was about to leave the islands forever. He wished he'd ever gone all the way to the volcano to see her.

They left the village behind and walked on along the beach. And there she was. She was still as beautiful as she used to be. Her hair and her dress were flowing in the gentle sea breeze. It would have been quite romantic with the tropical backdrop if there wasn't the noise of the eruption in the background, and if that wasn't to be their last meeting ever.

"Hi, Shaka," she greeted him with a soft, almost weak voice.

"Aloha, my little wahine," he returned her greeting, still oblivious of the link between her name and the word "wahine".

"Gadget may have told you, but I'd like to tell you, too. Shaka, I'm going away from Hawaii. Most probably forever."

"Lawhiney, I don't really want you to leave."

"You can't hold me here, Shaka. I'm not allowed to live in your village anymore. And I'm not allowed to live in any other mouse village. I had to choose between two lives—here on the islands as an outcast, or on the mainland with my family."

"I see. It's such a pity that it has to end this way."

"It has already almost ended." Lawhiney moved closer to Shaka. "And still, even if I won't see you anymore, I won't forget you. Now let's put it to an end peacefully with one last kiss."

"One last kiss..." Shaka repeated. He bowed down a bit so that Lawhiney could reach him more easily, and they shared a long last kiss. While Geegaw laid his arm around Stephanie and held her close, Gadget felt that she missed Chip so much it almost hurt. About half a year ago, she had finally learned what her feelings for him meant. And one day ago, it grew certain to her that Chip felt the same for her. And every time, her own feelings got even stronger.

After the kiss had ended, Shaka announced, "I've got something for you, Lawhiney. And for you, too, Gadget. Wait here, I'll go get it."

Gadget and Lawhiney looked at each other. What could Shaka have for them? And why should he have a present for Gadget?

Their questions were answered when he came back with two carefully crafted and beautifully painted pieces of wood. "I've made these surfboards especially for you." He handed the first one over to Lawhiney. It was designed to match her dress, showing white flowers on a blue background. However, those simple flowers hadn't been enough for him, so he had painted actual orchids onto the wood. "This one's for you, Lawhiney. May you never forget me."

"I won't, Shaka, I promise you. Thank you."

"And this one's for you, Gadget," Shaka said as he handed her a board which, despite showing a shade of lavender, looked like riveted steel. "May you never forget what a great surfer you are. Oh, be careful, this board isn't completely finished yet. Before you take it to surfing, you should give it a coating with clear varnish."

"Golly, thanks a lot, Shaka Baka!"

Both Gadget and Lawhiney gave him a hug before they stowed their boards in the Rangerwing and got on board again. The Hawaiian mouse waved after them as they flew away to the airport.

A light drizzle fell from the sky on a cold and gray autumn morning in New York City. It didn't exactly lift up Chip's mood as he was making breakfast for five. Since he was the first and so far the only to be up, he decided to take over that duty. He had rarely ever been separated from Gadget for that long. Foxglove was a great help for the Rangers on the past day's cases, and he snickered a little about the term that Fat Cat had coined. Rescue Rodent Air Force.

But it wasn't the same without Gadget. There was without a doubt a certain bit of nostalgia in their cases which they had to deal with riding the Rangerplane all the time since the Rangerwing wasn't there. Chip was willing to give the old Rangerplane some more chances, even though the Rangerwing was not only technologically far superior. But what dominated his emotions those days was how he missed their inventor.

He stared blankly out of the kitchen window and into the grayness of the morning's first sun rays filtered through a thick layer of clouds. He remembered his and Gadget's two near-kisses. And he wished for a real kiss. One of those that would have occurred if they hadn't been disturbed each time so far. He imagined how wonderful it would be to feel her warmth instead of the cold that was waiting outside for what was left of the Rangers.

'She said they should be back today,' he remembered and hoped that this would turn out to be true. Gadget's story came back to his mind. How she had lost her father on an autumn day. No, the weather was depressing enough, he didn't want to hear such awful news.

Instead, he heard something different. It was the door and the voices of those who came in. And one of these voices was familiar to him. It lightened up that dreary day for him.

"And this is where we live and work, our Headquarters."

"Wow, that's impressive. All those clocks, and the TV, and all that."

Chip left the almost completed breakfast behind and ran upstairs. 'Gadget! They're back!' In his excitement, he didn't even notice the one female voice which belonged neither to Gadget nor to her mother.

Gadget laid down her board and was about to remark that everyone was still asleep when she saw Chip stand in the doorway. Chip himself had only eyes for Gadget; if anyone had asked him how many mice were in the room, he wouldn't necessarily have given a correct answer.

They walked up to each other and met in the middle, hugging each other firmly and yet tenderly.

"Gadget! It's so wonderful to have you back."

"Have you missed me, Chip?"

"Yes."

"I've missed you, too. Um, everyone of you, of course. Oh, look who's come with us."

It was then when Chip noticed the fourth mouse. She looked exactly like his beloved Gadget, only the clothes were different. For a moment, he had difficulties with dealing with this surprise.

"Lawhiney?!"

"Hi Chip," she said with a smile. "By the way, it's LaWahini. I've asked Mom and Dad if I may change my name to what Mom had originally chosen for me."

"So, LaWahini, what are you doing here?" He expected anything, even though she had come with the rest of her family. Had she tricked them to get here and take revenge on the Rangers?

"I've taken my chance to leave Hawaii behind and start a new life here. I'll be living with my parents for a while."

"Well, I guess it's time for storytelling again," Geegaw said. "Do I smell breakfast, Chip?"

"Oh, yes. But it's for only five people so far," the chipmunk admitted.

"I'll help you make more," Geegaw offered and followed Chip to the kitchen.

As they went on completing and expanding the breakfast, Geegaw noticed that Chip stared to the door every now and then. "What's it?" he asked. "Or should I say, who's it?"

Chip sighed. "You know well who it is, Geegaw."

"Didn't you guys get along without her?"

"To be honest, I did miss her on our casework. Though Foxy helped us where she could."

"I'm pretty sure you didn't only miss her on your casework, Chip."

Chip stopped what he was doing. The fact came back to his mind that there was yet another person now who knew about his feelings for Gadget.

"Ah, looks like I'm right. So when will you tell her?"

"Soon, Geegaw. Maybe not today, but very soon. At least I hope so."

**The End**


End file.
